Home Feed

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What is a Home Feed?

The home feed is the feed of posts that appears in your initial screen or homepage of a social media website or app, specially when you have an account. The home feed typically displays posts from the users whom you've followed. They're typically split into two types: chronological feeds, that simply display the most recent posts first, and algorithmic feeds, that reorder and filter posts based on some algorithm. In particular, algorithmic feeds may also include a recommendation algorithm that adds popular posts based on your interests from users you don't follow—this is sometimes called the "for you page," abbreviated FYP.

Home feeds exist in all mainstream social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, TikTok, Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon. Some social media don't use a simple unidimensional home feed when you are on your PC, because there is more horizontal screen space. On Youtube, there's an algorithmic home feed with recommendations split into categories. On Pinterest, a masonry layout is used.

A mostly white web page. On the top-left corner, the user's avatar, then a left menu with the items: Home, Search, Notifications, Chat, Feeds, Lists, Profile, Settings, and a button for "New Post." In the center, two tabs: Discover (active) and Following. A list of posts in a vertical feed, each with the poster's avatar on the top-left, the display name, username (with at (@)), and time posted. On the right side, a search box, a panel labelled "Getting Started," and the links Discover, Following, More Feeds, Feedback, Privacy, Terms, and Help.
A screenshot of Bluesky, displaying an algorithmic home feed.

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