Ask most feed algorithms what they're optimising for, and the honest answer is time spent in the app. That single goal explains a lot about how social feeds have come to feel: ranked by whatever is most likely to keep you scrolling, not by what you actually asked to see when you tapped follow.
We started from a different, much narrower question: if you follow someone, did you actually see their post? That sounds like a low bar. On most platforms, it isn't guaranteed at all.
The problem with "engagement" as a goal
An engagement-ranked feed learns, correctly, that outrage, extremes and strangers performing for an algorithm tend to hold attention longer than a friend's ordinary Tuesday photo. Optimise hard enough for time spent, and you'll eventually see more of the former and less of the latter — not because anyone decided that on purpose, but because that's what the objective function rewards.
The accounts you actually follow start competing for space against content the algorithm thinks will perform better. That's a strange trade to make by default.
What we optimise for instead
In plain words Your feed is built from the people you follow, newest first. The only other thing that can appear in it is the occasional suggestion from an account you don't follow yet — and that's a feature you can see, understand, and turn off.
Our feed is, deliberately, close to chronological: recent posts from people you follow, in roughly the order they were posted. There's no hidden score pushing a popular stranger's post above your friend's because it's more likely to keep you on the app another ninety seconds.
Where we do rank, and why
We're not purists about strict chronology — if you've been away for two days, we'll surface what you likely missed first rather than burying it under everything posted since. That's a small, bounded adjustment aimed at making sure you see your friends' posts, not a system designed to maximise your time in the app.
Auto suggestion: discovery you can see and switch off
By default, we interleave an occasional post from an account you don't follow at a regular spot in your feed — a lightweight way to surface accounts you might like, without handing the whole feed over to an engagement ranker. This is the Auto suggestion toggle in Settings → Edit Profile, and it's on by default. Turn it off and your feed goes back to being built only from the people you follow.
Explore, for browsing on purpose
If you want to actively go looking for new accounts rather than wait for the occasional suggestion, that's what the Explore tab is for — content from outside your follows, clearly separated from your main feed.
The trade-off we're making
A chronological-leaning feed will sometimes feel quieter than an engagement-ranked one. You might see fewer posts overall in a given session, and we're comfortable with that. The goal isn't maximum time in the app — it's that when you open ZeroPix, you actually see the people you followed it for.
Give it a try
Upload a photo to ZeroPix and see how it holds up. Join a community built for photographers who care about the detail.