There are many things social media firms are good at, but perhaps the thing they are best at is launching features, those features being met with criticism from users and then those features being walked back or adapted in some way.

Twitter is the master of this craft and now it appears as if Instagram is conceding that its non-chronological timeline perhaps isn’t the solution for everybody.

So, Instagram is currently working on a version of its timelines that will allow users to sort posts chronologically rather than according to what Instagram’s algorithm decides you want to see.

According to CNN, Instagram has been working on this feature for months and plans to rollout the feature in the first quarter of 2022.

Instagram clarified this development via an official Twitter account.

We want people to have meaningful control over their experience. We’ve been experimenting with Favorites, a way for you to decide whose posts you want to see higher up, and we’re working on another option to see posts from people you follow in chronological order.

— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) December 8, 2021

Where did we hear this? Well Instagram chief executive officer Adam Mosseri is currently facing questions from lawmakers in the US about child safety issues on the platform.

That hearing is not going well for Mosseri at all. While he did suggest creating a new industry body to create standards for age verification and parental controls, those suggestions were waved off by senators.

“The kinds of baby steps that you’ve suggested so far are underwhelming,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal. Even Instagram’s new Take a Break feature was condemned with Blumenthal stating, “A nudge, a break, that ain’t going to save a kid from the addictive effects on your platform”.

Senators went on to say that there won’t be an industry body set up to address age verification and other matters but rather that these parameters would be decided by the government.

The Take a Break feature the senator mentioned was launched on Wednesday must be enabled at a user level. It’s also currently only available in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Essentially the feature will give you a notification to take a break when you’ve been scrolling for a long time.

As we said, things are not looking good for Instagram, Mosseri or social media as a whole. You can watch Mosseri’s testimony below.