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Instagram implements big changes to users’ feeds, ditches chronological content

Welcome back to DT Daily! Instagrammers should get ready for a big change coming to their feeds. Announced today, Instagram will transition away from a straight chronological feed in favor of an algorithmically based one that is supposed to put the most important stuff right at the top. Instagram reckons the average user misses well over half of what’s in their feed, much of it very relevant to what they want to see.

The new feed aims to address this problem, and the algorithm is based on factors such as the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting, and the timeliness of the post. Instagram isn’t rolling this out all at once, though. The social media platform says it will start testing slowly, but that eventually, uninteresting posts could be filtered out entirely.

This is kind of interesting because, on the plus side, if your friends post something the day prior and you didn’t have time to check your account, you’re more likely to see what they posted with this new feed. But on the other hand, what if the algorithm does a terrible job figuring out what’s important to you? We’ll know soon enough. Instagram is following in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter here, and everyone seems to be doing just fine.

VR Gaming brought to you by Sony

Sony formally announced  the PlayStation VR yesterday, and for anyone wondering if it would be less expensive than the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, the answer appears to be yes … sort of. The VR kit is priced at $400, but you’ll need a PlayStation Camera and motion controllers, so if you don’t already have them, that’s another $110. Oh, and if you don’t have a PlayStation 4, tack on another $300 or so. Now you’re up to as much as $850.

Obviously, though, Sony is targeting existing PS4 owners, so this does represent a pretty exciting opportunity to get into VR gaming on a very well-established platform. Check out our full report to learn more about what comes in PlayStation’s VR kit, due this October.

Uber targets families

Finally: Uber has a new feature that will be of interest to families.

It’s called Family Profiles, and it lets anyone on the list pay for the ride without necessarily entering their own credit card. This is great, because Johnny may need a ride home from the dance, and you already caved and gave him his own cell phone, but you definitely don’t want to give that kid a credit card. Trust me on this one, ok? I know from personal experience.

To set it up, an Uber account holder just needs to send out invites, and those invited can start riding away. You know, this is positioned for families, but this could also be great for work groups as well, potentially cutting down on expense reports and having to issue multiple corporate cards. Something tells us this could take off.

Caleb Denison
Digital Trends Editor at Large Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched…
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