Topic Feeds for Instagram: Make Your Own Feeds

Create feeds of Instagram accounts by topic and read their posts newest first from the toolbar. Sign in to sync across browsers.

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 Open Manage from the top of the new tab. • Feeds: see all your feeds with their account counts. Drag to reorder them, or use the Move up and Move down buttons. Rename a feed, or delete it after a confirmation. • Accounts: open a feed to see its accounts. Add several at once, separated by spaces, commas or new lines, and remove any you no longer want. • Needs attention: accounts that are private, not found or failing to load are listed first, with a plain explanation, so you can fix a typo or remove an account that has gone away. • Settings: choose compact or comfortable density, turn the number-key shortcuts on or off, and pick the language (or leave it on Automatic to follow your browser). Changes appear at once in every open new tab and in the toolbar popup. WHAT THE ACCOUNT LABELS MEAN • Private: posts aren't shown. Instagram doesn't show a private account's posts to visitors, so there's nothing the extension can display. The account stays in your feed in case it becomes public. • Account not found: the username doesn't exist, often because the account was renamed or removed. Check the spelling, or remove it. • No posts yet: the account exists and is public, but has nothing to show. • Couldn't load: the last check failed. Saved posts stay visible, and the account is tried again a little later. • Waiting for Instagram: Instagram has asked the extension to slow down. Checks pause until the time shown. • Not checked yet / Checking: the account was just added and its first check is pending or in progress. Private, not found and empty accounts are rechecked every six hours, so a change on Instagram is picked up without you doing anything. HOW FRESH ARE THE POSTS The extension is designed to be light on Instagram, so it keeps working for you. • Each account is checked at most once every 15 minutes. An account in several feeds is checked once for all of them. • Accounts are checked one at a time, with a short pause between them. • A background check runs every 15 minutes, but only if you've opened a new tab in the last hour. If you're away, nothing runs. • When a check fails, the account waits 30 minutes before trying again, and its saved posts stay on screen. • If Instagram asks the extension to slow down, all checks pause for 30 minutes, even the Refresh button, and the page tells you when it will try again. • Opening a new tab always shows saved posts first. Fresh ones are fetched afterwards, in the background. For most feeds, this means a new tab shows posts that are at most a quarter of an hour old. LANGUAGES The interface is available in English, French (Français), German (Deutsch), Italian (Italiano), Spanish (Español), Japanese (日本語), Simplified Chinese (简体中文), Arabic (العربية), Hindi (हिन्दी) and Hebrew (עברית). By default it follows your browser's languages. You can choose a different one under Manage, Settings, Language. Arabic and Hebrew use a right-to-left layout. Dates and times follow your region's format. Post captions are shown as written. They aren't translated. ACCESSIBILITY Topic Feeds is built to be usable by everyone: • Every control can be reached and used with the keyboard, with a visible focus outline. • A "Skip to posts" link jumps past the feed tabs. • Feeds can be reordered with buttons as well as by dragging. • Screen readers hear when a feed is refreshing, when it has updated and when accounts couldn't load. • Post images are described by their captions. • Single-key shortcuts are off unless you turn them on. • Animations are reduced when your system asks for reduced motion. • Text and controls are designed for readable contrast in both light and dark themes. PRIVACY Topic Feeds has no account to create, no server, no analytics and no ads. The developer receives nothing. • Your feeds, settings and saved posts are stored only in this browser, in the extension's local storage. They aren't synced to your Google account or to other devices. • Posts are read from Instagram's public profile pages without your sign-in. • "Pick from accounts you follow" is the one exception. When you click it, the extension reads your following list from an instagram.com tab, using your existing Instagram sign-in in this browser. The list is shown so you can pick from it, and it is never saved or sent anywhere else. The extension never sees or stores your Instagram password. • When you click the toolbar button, the extension reads the current tab's address to see which Instagram profile is open. Nothing about your browsing is saved. • Requests go only to Instagram and its image servers. • It never posts, likes, follows or sends messages on Instagram for you. • Removing an account from every feed deletes its saved posts. Uninstalling the extension deletes everything it stored. The full privacy policy is linked from this listing. PERMISSIONS Chrome's install prompt lists what the extension can access. Here is what each item is for. • Access to www.instagram.com and Instagram's image servers: loads the public profile pages of the accounts in your feeds and their images, recognises the profile you're viewing when you click the toolbar button, and reads your following list when you ask it to. It doesn't touch any other site. • Replacing the new tab page: your feeds are the new tab. • Reading your browsing history (shown because the extension can see tab addresses): lets the toolbar button see which Instagram profile is open in the current tab, and lets setup find an open Instagram tab. Nothing about your browsing is saved or sent. • Blocking content on any page (shown for network rules): one rule that applies only to the extension's own requests to Instagram, so the public profile page is served as it would be on a normal visit. It doesn't block or change anything on the pages you visit. • Storage: keeps your feeds, settings and saved posts on your device. • Alarms: schedules the quiet background refresh. • Scripting: runs the one step that reads your following list in an Instagram tab, only when you click "Pick from accounts you follow". GOOD TO KNOW • Public accounts only. Instagram doesn't show private accounts' posts to visitors, so a private account in a feed is labelled and its posts aren't shown, even if you follow it. • Recent posts, not the full archive. Each feed covers roughly the last dozen posts of each account at first, and builds up to 48 per account as you keep using it. For anything older, open the profile on Instagram. • Reading, not interacting. Likes, comments, stories, reels tabs and direct messages stay on Instagram. Every post links there. • Desktop Chrome. The extension replaces the new tab in Chrome on your computer. It doesn't run on phones. • It depends on Instagram's public pages. If Instagram changes those pages, feeds may stop updating until the extension is updated. Your feeds and saved posts stay in place in the meantime. • Instagram may limit requests from your network if many accounts are checked in a short time. The extension backs off when that happens and tells you when it will try again. QUESTIONS Do I need an Instagram account? No. Public posts are read without signing in. You only need to be signed in to Instagram in Chrome if you want to pick accounts from your following list. Can I add private accounts? You can add them, but their posts can't be shown, because Instagram doesn't show them to visitors. They're labelled Private and rechecked every six hours in case they become public. How many feeds and accounts can I have? There's no fixed limit on feeds. Five to thirty accounts per feed works best. Larger feeds work, but they take longer to refresh, and checking many accounts at once makes it more likely that Instagram asks the extension to slow down. Why don't I see an account's older posts? Instagram's public profile page shows about a dozen recent posts. The extension saves what it sees and keeps up to 48 per account, so the history fills in over time. Why does an account say "Account not found"? Usually it was renamed or deleted. Find the new username on Instagram, add it, and remove the old one. Why did my feed stop updating? Look at the line under the feed name. If Instagram is limiting requests, it says when checks will resume. If individual accounts couldn't load, Manage lists them under Needs attention. Will this change what I see on Instagram? No. It doesn't follow, unfollow, like or hide anything. Your Instagram account and its feed are untouched. Can I get my normal new tab back? Yes. Disable or remove the extension from Chrome's Extensions page. Removing it also deletes everything it stored. Do my feeds sync between computers? No. They're stored only in this browser profile. TIPS • Keep feeds focused. A feed about one thing is quicker to read than one about everything. • Put an account in more than one feed if it fits several topics. It's only checked once. • Order your feeds so the one you read most is first. With number keys turned on, it's always 1. • Pin the toolbar button, then build feeds as you browse Instagram. • Use compact density if you like to scan, comfortable if you like to look. Topic Feeds is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Instagram or Meta. Instagram is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc. Questions or problems: 1220aav@gmail.com