Instagram’s new feed hits Singapore

SINGAPORE — A majority of Instagram users in Singapore have become the first in Asia to experience the content sharing network’s new algorithm-fuelled feed, which was introduced to the Republic on Wednesday (April 6).

Users will no longer see posts displayed chronologically. Instead, they will see posts that they “care about first”, said Instagram, which announced the changes on March 15.

The order of posts displayed will be determined by the timeliness of each post, a user’s past activity with the person posting and the likelihood that a user will be interested in the content.

Other countries that the new feed has been rolled out to include Finland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Instagram said that it aims to expand this to the global Instagram community in the coming months.

But not everyone is looking forward to the new feed, with an online petition to retain the previous chronological display garnering more than 330,000 supporters. However, this is a fraction of the number of Instagram users there are worldwide: The New York Times estimates that the network enjoys more than 400 million regular visitors.