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Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family and share photos and experiences. One of the challenges of using Instagram is keeping up with all the posts.
There are so many posts that it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Fortunately, there is a way to sort your Instagram feed by date. This makes it easy to find the posts you’re looking for and keeps your timeline organized.
This article will show you how to sort your Instagram feed by date.
Sort Instagram feed by date
In 2016, Instagram made a major change to its platform: it went from a chronological feed to an algorithmic one. This means that instead of seeing the most recent posts from people you follow first, you now see the posts that Instagram thinks are the most relevant to you.
The algorithm considers factors such as how recent the posts are, your relationship to the person who posted them, and whether you have interacted with that person’s posts in the past. While this change proved controversial, it’s easy to see why Instagram would prefer an algorithmic feed.
First, it keeps users coming back to the platform more frequently. Second, it gives businesses a better chance of having their ads seen by potential customers. And lastly, it allows Instagram to collect more data about its users, which is valuable for targeted marketing campaigns.
That said, a chronological feed poses several challenges to users. First of all, if you follow a lot of people, it can be difficult to keep up with the content in real time. If you can only check your feed a few times a day, you’re likely to miss a lot of what’s posted.
An algorithmic feed also means that you may not see everything posted since you last checked. This is especially true when you’re following a particular event or conversation. Viewing posts in a seemingly disorganized manner can create confusion and make it difficult to keep track of the latest news.
But there is good news! After years of lobbying, Instagram finally agreed to bring back a chronological feed, allowing you to sort the feed by date. Strictly speaking, it is not yet possible to have some kind of physical mark separating events on different days. But with a chronological feed, you’ll be able to see posts in the order they were published.
Let’s see how to switch to a chronological stream depending on the type of device you are using.
Sort Instagram feed by date on an iPhone
If you’re an iPhone user and want to explore everything Instagram has to offer and stay up to date with the latest news and trends, the logical step would be to switch to a chronological feed.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Instagram app on your phone.
- Tap the Instagram logo in the top left corner of your screen. This will open the feed management section.
- Select “Following” from the list.
This will immediately switch your Instagram feed from the algorithm version to the chronological version, allowing you to see posts only from the accounts you follow. Additionally, posts will be ordered by date, starting with the most recent to the oldest.
Sometimes, even with a chronological feed, you may not be able to see all the posts made on a given date due to the large number of accounts you follow. But don’t worry because you can limit the feed to only include posts from selected accounts and still sort things by date.
That is how:
- Open the app and tap the Instagram logo in the top left corner.
- Select “Favorites” from the list.
- Select the accounts you want to add as favorites and then tap “Confirm Favorites.”
Sort Instagram feed by date on Android device
If your device runs Android, here’s what you need to do to sort your feed by date:
- Open the Instagram app.
- Tap the Instagram logo at the top of the screen to open the feed management section.
- Select “Following” from the list.
Once you do this, your feed will be populated with posts from the accounts you follow in a chronological format.
There is a catch
While the ability to sort your Instagram feed by date or set your favorite accounts is a welcome addition to Instagram, there is a problem.
Any changes you make in this regard are temporary and your account reverts to an algorithm feed as soon as you log out and close the app. You can’t set any of these new feeds as your default feed. So every time you open the app, you’ll see an algorithm feed full of ads and disorderly posts.
You will need to reconfigure the app to use the “Next” version or the “Favorites” version. This is a pretty big drawback and many users will likely just stick with the default algorithm rather than bother switching back and forth. Hopefully, Instagram will eventually allow users to set their preferred feed as the default.
Keep your feed up to date
A chronological feed can make it much easier to find the post you’re looking for and keep your timeline organized. Whether you’re trying to revisit a previous promotion or just want to see what new content was posted yesterday, switching to the Following feed or Favorites feed can help you do just that.
Have you tried sorting your Instagram feed by date? How did it go? Let us know in the comments below.
