Instagram IS changing its algorithm —but don’t freak out yet

Recently, Instagram announced that they will be changing the app’s algorithm to show most relevant content at the top of user feeds, as opposed to chronologically. This has prompted many a user to post the following message on their account, asking their followers to activate push notifications on their smartphones to ensure they still receive content from said user.

Considering Instagram doesn’t make changes of this caliber very often, it’s understandable why people are freaking out a little. And while push notifications aren’t necessarily a bad thing if you want to ensure you don’t miss anything from your favorite Instagram posters, I think we can agree that multiple notifications popping up on our phones can get annoying – especially if we follow folks who post often.

But, also understandably, folks are getting a little irritated with all these push-notification posts.

Luckily, there are a couple ingredients in this equation that don’t make it as dire as it seems from the get-go. First, Instagram’s announcement on March 15 stated that the change would occur “in the coming months” and that they’d take their time in perfecting it, so the rush to get everyone signed up for notifications this past weekend is a liiittle jump-the-gun-esque. And secondly, the new algorithm will not erase any posts from your feed – it will simply put the content most relevant to your interests at the top, kind of like how Facebook does already.

“The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post,” Instagram stated in the blog post. “As we begin, we’re focusing on optimizing the order — all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.”

The blog post also points out that the average Instagram user misses 70% of the content on their feeds, implying that the change will help users see more of the stuff they actually care about. So if you’re like me and are a more casual Instagram user who’s constantly wasting time visiting your favorite accounts one by one to see their most recent posts, this is actually fab news. No more worrying about having to unfollow people you like but who post way too much – because they won’t be at the top of your news feed, where videos of TSwift’s cats should be.

Bottom line: If you want to continue to see posts from your favorite Instagram users, all you have to do is go like and comment on their current stuff more! And if you want to be seen? Just post cool stuff and use tags strategically. Which we’re sure you probably already do anyway!