Why is the Instagram following list not in chronological order?
Updated 4 October 20263 min read
If the following list of a friend looks random, it is not your imagination. Instagram changed how it orders these lists, and the order is different for every viewer.
Instagram personalises the list
When you open someone else's Following list, Instagram ranks it for you: accounts you know, mutual friends and accounts you interact with move to the top. Two people looking at the same list can see a different order.
Only on your own profile can you sort by date followed. For every other profile this option is missing.
Sometimes the list is shuffled for everyone
Besides the personal ranking, there are phases in which Instagram delivers mixed-up lists for many profiles. During such phases no service can show the newest follows reliably for that profile.
FollowScope detects these phases and says so in red instead of pretending the order is correct. In most cases the correct order is back within an hour.
How to see the newest follows first
Search the username on FollowScope. When the order can be read correctly, the newest follow is in the first row.
Questions
Why is someone's Instagram following list not in order?
Instagram ranks other people's following lists for each viewer, with accounts you know at the top. It is no longer sorted by date.
Can I sort someone else's following list by date?
Not in the app. FollowScope shows the newest follows of public accounts first.
Try it with a username
One search per day is free. No Instagram login needed.