SAN FRANCISCO — Instead of Instagram showing users the most recent posts first, the mobile photo-sharing app says it will give higher priority to posts that each user is likely to care about most.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s how Face book decides what to show users of its online social network.
Facebook Inc., which owns Instagram, has long used a complex formula to emphasize items it hopes will be “relevant” to each user, based on factors such as whether the post came from a close friend or how the user responded to similar posts.
Instagram had previously acted more like rival Twitter, showing every post in reverse-chronological order. But as its audience has grown to more than 400 million users, Instagram says it’s become harder for users to keep up with friends and other accounts they follow.
