Instagram's new algorithm is here to mess up your timeline

Facebook announced plans to roll out an algorithm-based timeline for Instagram back in March, and now it's officially rolling out.

The change is being made to help Instagram users find the most relevant content for them, according to Facebook. "On average, people miss 70 percent of their feeds," writes Instagram in a blog post.

The company hopes users will find more relevant content at the top of their feeds to engage with, instead of having to scroll endlessly through a chronological timeline. This move shouldn't be a surprise as it's exactly how Facebook's News Feed works.

No escaping the algorithm

We reached out to Instagram about whether users could disable the algorithm to get back their chronological timeline Here's the company's response:

"We believe it's important to have a simple, consistent user experience across Instagram, so we're not providing a toggle off switch."

That's a bummer for users who like getting a timeline view in their feed. However, you can still see a chronological view of an account when tapping on their name.

Instagram now has over 400 million monthly users who are all posting more and more photos and videos. It's understandable the service wants to help you separate the posts you'll be interesting from the noise.

For businesses who rely on Instagram for marketing, the new algorithm is a scary thing. If users don't engage with a post, then that post will be buried. However, Facebook released new business tools that provide useful analytics. The tools will also make it easy for businesses to turn a post into an ad.

All of the big social networks have now moved to an algorithm-based timeline, including Twitter, though Twitter gives users the option of opting out. These changes are designed to keep you engaged with the social network and to find content that's valuable and interesting to you.