Instagram says feed will start showing posts in rearranged order

[SAN FRANCISCO] Instagram, the photo-sharing application, will start to reorder posts in users' feeds, shifting to the top the ones it thinks they'll most want to see - a move that's quickly meeting resistance from fans.

The app, which is owned by Facebook Inc, is going to be ordered using an algorithm tuned to make sure people don't miss what the company thinks is most important to them, Instagram said in a blog post. People miss on average 70 per cent of their feeds, the company said.

The change would make Instagram's feed more like Facebook's news feed. As with any major change to a popular application, the news was met with swift and dramatic criticism from fans.

"That's the end of Instagram," one said on Twitter. "I need to start brushing up on my Snapchat skills," said another. Twitter Inc made a similar move earlier this year, which also met with user outrage.

Instagram said the move was necessary to improve the user experience. People will still see all the posts from people they follow, just in a different order.

"As Instagram has grown, it's become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share," the company said. "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."

BLOOMBERG