Defining a Filter Feed
Launch library · evergreen read
A filter feed describes any feed shaped primarily by personalisation algorithms rather than strict chronological order, selecting and ranking content based on predicted relevance to a specific viewer rather than simply showing everything in the order it was posted. Nothing about that selection is neutral, even when it feels seamless and entirely automatic to the viewer.
This term is often used to distinguish personalised feeds from the earlier, simpler model of a purely chronological timeline, highlighting the fact that what a viewer sees is actively curated rather than a neutral, unfiltered stream of everything available. That contrast highlights just how much curation now sits quietly between a post and the person seeing it.
Understanding a feed as filtered, rather than complete, is a useful reminder that any given feed represents a small, algorithmically chosen selection, not a comprehensive picture of everything happening across the platform at any given moment. Remembering that filtering is happening constantly is a small but genuinely useful discipline to maintain.