Instagram gave brands a hot new feature, but still won't give users a chronological timeline

The company's newest feature is here for you, as long as you're a business.
 By 
Jack Morse
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Instagram's latest update is totally here for you — as long as the you in question just so happens to be a major brand account on its platform.

That's right, as of today, businesses now have the ability to schedule posts. And new features are all good and fine, I guess, but what I'm really trying to say here is maybe Instagram could have released a chronological timeline instead?

Sure, scheduling posts will help Wendy's social media team get that definitely important burger content to the company's followers at 2 a.m. or whatever, and Instagram's developers should be praised for making this crucial innovation possible, but maybe they could have instead spent some time building a toggle switch for users to turn off the terrible algorithmic timeline?

It can't be that difficult, right? I mean, I'm not a programmer, but the Instagram feed used to be displayed in chronological order so maybe the company has that code laying around somewhere?

Ok, yeah, possibly Kevin Systrom threw it out or whatever one does with features destined for the digital dustbin. But, even if that's the case, surely he could order his employees to whip up something new and fresh for all us little people just trying to see what exciting selfie opportunities are happening in our friends' lives today.

Right? Am I asking too much here? Again, I'm not trying to take anything away from the groundbreaking post-scheduling opportunity Instagram just changed the game with. That is an important, agenda-setting improvement, and deserves all the praise it will surely get from the group of anonymous faces managing the Nutella Instagram account or whatever.

But I'm just thinking that a little chronological timeline would be cool, too.

Of course, I'll be the first to admit that seeing friends' photos in the order they were posted isn't as big of a deal as the "better content planning" tools Instagram just gifted its advertisers, but it would be sort of nice.

And remember when social media was nice? That was a good time. Can we have more of that, please?

No?

Shoot. OK.

It was probably pretty silly of me to ask, anyway, not being a business and all.

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Jack Morse

Professionally paranoid. Covering privacy, security, and all things cryptocurrency and blockchain from San Francisco.

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