Meta-owned social network Threads is breaking new ground by testing a long-awaited feature, a “Recent” filter, that will finally allow users to sort their search results by the latest posts. The highly-anticipated move was announced on Monday by Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, who confirmed that it’s currently only available to a select few users. “We’re starting to test this with a small number of people, so it’s easier to find relevant search results in real-time,” he replied to a curious user.
The “Recent” filter isn’t strictly chronological, but it shows the latest posts better than the “Top” filter,” confirmed a user taking part in the test, who noticed the new feature on their search results screen.
This isn’t the first time Instagram has attempted to incorporate a “Recent” filter into their platform. Earlier this year, they accidentally rolled out the option to a small group of users, labeling it as an “internal prototype.” However, this time around, the testing appears to be more deliberate and promising.
As for why it took so long for this feature to become available, Mosseri previously explained that implementing it posed a unique set of challenges. In particular, there were concerns about potential security risks and abuse of the system by spammers and malicious actors. “To clarify, having a comprehensive list of every post with a specific word in chronological order inevitably means spammers and other bad actors pummel the view with content by simply adding the relevant words or tags,” he elaborated in an earlier statement. “And before you ask why we don’t take down that bad content, understand there’s a lot more content that people don’t want to see than we can or should take down.”
Despite these obstacles, Instagram has continued to work towards finding a solution that will satisfy its users’ demand for real-time search results. With this latest test, it seems they may have finally found the right balance between convenience and security. Only time will tell if the “Recent” filter will become a permanent feature on Instagram’s popular social network Threads.
