Instagram’s latest upgrade may make it more difficult for users to access recent posts while searching in the app. Though you may now search for all kinds of recent Instagram photos based on a specific hashtag, the new update will only show you the posts with the most likes or short films dubbed ‘Reels’ connected to the hashtag. According to the firm, this feature would blend “more recent and timely information” among the two groups to observe how consumers react to it.

For a small group, we’re testing more recent and timely content in ‘Top’ and ‘Reels’ tabs in hashtags, and removing the ‘Recent’ tab. We want to see if this helps people connect with more interesting and relevant content on hashtags, while also keeping them across what’s current. pic.twitter.com/nLb6BiFRws

— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) April 19, 2022

When hashtags originally rolled out on Instagram, they were a fun way to highlight photo trends. Still, they are primarily a tool for users to gain greater visibility, hence more clicks and likes. The “top posts” tab, according to Instagram, displays popular posts, but the “recent” tab displays information in the order it was uploaded, regardless of how many likes it receives.

Despite unfavorable reactions from users who like to read their timelines in chronological order, social media applications continue to rely on algorithms to display users more diverse and marketable material. With applications like TikTok stealing users’ attention and even becoming more popular than YouTube for Android users; Instagram has been pushing out or, in this instance, removing the feature to make Reels a natural alternative to seeing photographs.

Finding new methods for the users to interact with more system-sorted material has inspired developments in other platforms. For example, Twitter made it more challenging to read items in chronological order last month by switching users to an algorithmic timeline. Still, that move was reversed after a few days.

It will be fascinating to see how this update will change the quality of content people view on Instagram and when the test will be made more broadly available.