LinkedIn Is Testing a "Network" Tab — an Alternative Feed Built Only From Your Connections and Follows
LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan announced a trial of a Network tab that shows content only from people and pages you have explicitly connected with or follow, sitting alongside the main feed; Social Media Today reported it on September 20, 2026.
2026-09-21 · by Moe Ameen
Published 2026-09-21 · Updated
Short answer
LinkedIn is testing a Network tab, a separate feed showing only posts from people and pages you've connected with or followed. Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan announced the trial, and Social Media Today reported it on September 20, 2026. It sits next to the main algorithmic feed and targets engagement pods and AI-generated clutter. LinkedIn gave no rollout timeline, and its earlier alternative-feed tests never launched widely.
Key takeaways
- The Network tab shows only your connections and the accounts you follow.
- Hari Srinivasan said LinkedIn hopes it helps rebuild "real connection with real people."
- It is an option next to the main feed, not a replacement.
- LinkedIn published no timeline or rollout scope for the test.
What is LinkedIn's Network tab?
LinkedIn is trialing a Network tab, an alternative feed made up entirely of content from the people and pages you have explicitly connected with or followed. Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan announced the test, and Social Media Today reported it on September 20, 2026. In Srinivasan's words, "The Network tab helps you stay connected to your network, ie the people you have explicitly connected or followed," adding: "We all want more real connection with real people, and we hope this plays a small part in rebuilding that world."
The tab is positioned as an option alongside the main feed, not a replacement for it. Where the default feed is algorithmically ranked and pulls in out-of-network content LinkedIn thinks you will engage with, the Network tab narrows the view to your first-degree connections and the accounts you follow. It is a direct response to two problems LinkedIn has spent 2026 fighting: engagement pods that inflate post metrics through coordinated liking and commenting, and AI-generated "slop" crowding feeds.
This is LinkedIn's latest run at an alternative feed rather than a first attempt. The platform tested various alternative feeds last year, and trialed topic-based suggested feeds in June 2026 to surface trending conversations; neither of those graduated to a broad launch. LinkedIn did not publish a timeline, rollout scope, or duration for the Network tab test, so treat availability and the exact behavior as an early snapshot — a signal about where LinkedIn wants engagement to move, not a shipped feature to plan around yet.
Why does a connections-only feed matter for creators?
- If a connections-only feed becomes a real surface, being genuinely present with your network matters more than chasing one out-of-network viral hit. Consistency in front of the people who already follow you starts to outweigh algorithmic lottery tickets.
- It is a bet against pods and slop. The Network tab strips out the coordinated engagement and low-quality AI content that game the main feed, which rewards creators who show up authentically and regularly rather than those who juice metrics.
- Distribution still stops at LinkedIn. A tab that reorganizes the LinkedIn feed does nothing for the eight other places you publish — the same idea still has to reach Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Threads, Pinterest, your blog, and your newsletter.
- Frequency and voice are the levers you can actually pull. In a feed made of people your audience chose to follow, the creators who post often and sound human hold attention; the ones who go quiet or read like a template lose the slot.
- It is a test, not a launch. LinkedIn gave no timeline and its two prior alternative-feed experiments did not roll out widely, so build a durable posting habit rather than optimizing for one tab that may not survive the trial.
How do you stay visible in a connections-only feed?
A connections-only feed rewards one thing above all: consistent, human-sounding presence in front of the people who already follow you. That is a volume-and-voice problem, and it is exactly what Kompozy is built to solve — without tripping the AI-slop enforcement LinkedIn is running the Network tab to escape.
Point Kompozy at one source — a talk, a client story, a long post that landed — and a Persona Brief locks your voice, phrasing, and banned words so every output reads like you, not a bot. From that one input it generates a full week for LinkedIn: text posts, document-style Carousel Posts, captioned Persona Shorts fronted by a consistent face, and Clipped Shorts cut from long-form video — the formats that keep you showing up in a network feed. Autopilot then schedules and publishes on a steady cadence across the eight social platforms plus blog and email, and every piece clears a per-post review gate before it goes out. The Network tab is LinkedIn asking who actually shows up for their network; Kompozy is how you answer yes on LinkedIn and everywhere else, at a frequency and quality no manual posting habit can hold.
What are the key facts about LinkedIn's Network tab?
- LinkedIn is testing a Network tab, an alternative feed of only your connections and the people and pages you follow, announced by CPO Hari Srinivasan and reported September 20, 2026.
- It sits alongside the main algorithmic feed and is aimed at engagement pods and AI "slop" — part of LinkedIn's 2026 push toward "real connection with real people."
- It is a test with no published timeline or rollout scope; LinkedIn's prior alternative-feed experiments did not launch broadly.
- A connections-only feed rewards consistent, human-sounding presence. Creators who need that cadence across every platform, not just LinkedIn, use a generation-and-publishing engine like Kompozy.
What does this look like in Kompozy?
A real five-slide carousel generated in the Kompozy workspace, shown as an example of the format. It wasn't made about this story. Document-style posts like this are a common LinkedIn format.
Who is this for, and who should skip it?
Best for:
- Creators whose LinkedIn audience is mostly people who already follow them
- Professionals who post regularly in their own voice
- Anyone tired of engagement pods
Not ideal for:
- Accounts that depend on reaching people outside their network
- Anyone planning around a feature that may not survive the test
Frequently asked questions
What is the LinkedIn Network tab?
It is an alternative feed LinkedIn is testing that shows content only from your first-degree connections and the people and pages you follow, instead of the algorithmic main feed. LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan announced the trial, and it was reported on September 20, 2026.
Does the Network tab replace the main LinkedIn feed?
No. It is positioned as an option alongside the main feed, not a replacement. The default feed remains algorithmically ranked and can surface out-of-network content, while the Network tab narrows the view to accounts you have explicitly connected with or followed.
Why is LinkedIn testing a connections-only feed?
To push back on engagement pods that inflate post metrics and on AI-generated "slop" filling feeds. It is part of LinkedIn's broader 2026 effort to rebuild "real connection with real people."
How do creators stay visible if a connections-only feed takes off?
By posting consistently and sounding genuinely human, since a network feed rewards regular presence over out-of-network virality. A tool like Kompozy generates on-brand posts, carousels, and shorts from one source and publishes them across LinkedIn plus the other social platforms, blog, and email on a steady cadence.
How do we know this?
We checked every date, figure and quote on this page against the sources listed below on 2026-10-23, using Social Media Today's report, which quotes Srinivasan's announcement, and rewrote or removed anything they didn't support. Kompozy plan and feature details come from kompozy.io/pricing.
Sources
- Social Media Today — LinkedIn tests Network tab to encourage engagement among connections (read 2026-10-23)
- Kompozy — Pricing (read 2026-10-23)