Topic Feeds for Instagram: Make Your Own Feeds

Topic Feeds turns your new tab into a calm reader for the Instagram accounts you choose, grouped by topic and shown strictly newest first. Instagram's home feed is ranked and mixes in suggestions, reels and ads. Its Following view is a single list of everyone at once. Topic Feeds lets you split your reading by subject: a feed for Design, one for Food, one for Travel, one for Friends. Each feed merges its accounts' recent posts into one timeline, in time order, and it's there every time you open a new tab. You choose the accounts. Time sets the order. Nothing else is added. WHY TOPIC FEEDS Most people follow accounts for different reasons: friends, work, a hobby, a city, a craft. In one long ranked feed those interests crowd each other out, and it's hard to tell whether you've seen everything from the accounts you care about most. Topic Feeds gives each interest its own short, ordered list. You can catch up on Ceramics in a minute while a page loads, then switch to Architecture later, without the rest of Instagram getting in the way. Because it lives on the new tab, there's nothing to remember to open. You see what's new each time you start typing an address, and you can ignore it just as easily. WHAT IT DOES • Topic feeds: make as many named feeds as you like and fill each with the accounts you pick. An account can be in several feeds at once. • Strict time order: posts are sorted newest first and grouped under Today, Yesterday and earlier days. Nothing is ranked, suggested or inserted. • Quick setup: type or paste usernames or profile links, or pick from the accounts you follow. Each account is checked as you add it, so you know right away whether it can be shown. • Add while you browse: on an Instagram profile, click the toolbar button and tick the feeds that account belongs in. Untick to remove it, or make a new feed with it in one step. • Instant new tab: saved posts appear at once and refresh quietly in the background. You never wait on a blank page. • Clear status: private, renamed or unavailable accounts are labelled in plain words, and you're told when they'll be checked again. • Easy to manage: rename, reorder and delete feeds; add and remove accounts; see which accounts need attention. • Two layouts: compact for scanning many posts, comfortable for larger images. • Keyboard friendly: optionally switch feeds with the number keys 1 to 9. Every control works with the keyboard. • Light and dark: follows your system setting. • Ten languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and Hebrew, with right-to-left layouts for Arabic and Hebrew. • Every post links to Instagram, where you can like, comment, share and follow as usual. GETTING STARTED 1. Install the extension. A new tab opens with "Make your first feed". 2. Give the feed a name, such as "Design" or "Friends". 3. Add accounts. Type or paste usernames (with or without the @) or full profile links, separated by spaces, commas or new lines. Or click "Pick from accounts you follow" to choose from your own following list. 4. Watch each account get checked: found, private, not found, or no posts yet. Fix or remove any that weren't found. 5. Click "Start reading". Your feed now appears on every new tab. Five to thirty accounts per feed works best. Smaller feeds stay current and easy to read; very large ones take longer to refresh, because each account is checked separately. To make more feeds, use "+ New feed" at the top of the page. To change a feed, open Manage. READING YOUR FEEDS Your feeds sit along the top of the new tab. Click one to switch, or turn on number keys in Settings and press 1 to 9. Each post shows the account, how long ago it was posted, the image and its caption. Videos and albums are labelled, and the image links to the post on Instagram. When a post was made together with another account (a collab), it shows which account it came through. Under the feed name you'll see how many accounts it holds and when it was last updated. While posts are refreshing, the page shows the progress, for example "Refreshing 3 of 12". New posts slot into place when they arrive. At the end of a feed, a short note says how far back it goes. Instagram shows about a dozen recent posts per account on its public pages, so a very busy account sets how far back a feed can reach. Over time the extension keeps up to 48 recent posts per account, so the history grows the more often you open new tabs. The Refresh button checks every account in the current feed straight away, instead of waiting for the next scheduled check. ADD FROM INSTAGRAM When you come across an account worth following on instagram.com, you don't have to copy its name. 1. Open the account's profile on instagram.com. 2. Click the Topic Feeds button in Chrome's toolbar. 3. Tick each feed the account belongs in. Untick a feed to remove it again. 4. Or click "New feed" to make a feed that starts with this account. Chrome hides extension buttons it hasn't been told to show. To keep this one in view, open the Extensions menu (the puzzle piece) and pin Topic Feeds. If you're in the middle of setting up a feed on the new tab, the popup can add accounts to that feed too. PICK FROM ACCOUNTS YOU FOLLOW During setup, "Pick from accounts you follow" lists the accounts you already follow on Instagram, so you can tick the ones that belong in a feed instead of typing them. • It uses your existing Instagram sign-in in this browser. If you aren't signed in, it tells you, and you can sign in on instagram.com and try again. • If no Instagram tab is open, one opens in the background for a moment and closes again. • A filter box narrows a long list as you type. • Private accounts are marked. You can add them, but their posts can't be shown. • The list stays on the page while you pick. It's never saved and never sent anywhere. This is optional. Typing or pasting usernames works without signing in. MANAGING FEEDS Ope…