I’ve got exciting news for all Instagram enthusiasts! Instagram has now rolled out an update that allows us to tailor the Your Algorithm controls directly into our main feed experience. This means we have more power to manage the topics influencing our recommendations across Feed, Reels, and Explore.
About Your Algorithm. This feature is designed to allow me to view the topics Instagram thinks I’m interested in. It gives me the option to remove topics I’m not keen on and add those I want to see more frequently. Although Instagram first introduced Your Algorithm for Reels last December, it has since broadened these controls across more recommendation surfaces.
Feed joins Reels and Explore. Now, with this update, I can manage topic-level controls on my main feed. This change means the recommended posts I see—often from accounts I don’t follow—can be more aligned with my true interests.
Instagram generates a list of topics based on my activity, and any tweaks I make to this list help the system fine-tune future recommendations.
More user control. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, mentions that this update addresses how we often feel out of control in recommendation-driven feeds.
“Our system learns from what I tap, watch, and share, but there hasn’t been a clear way for me to tell it what I truly want,” Mosseri explained. With the help of large language models, Instagram can now describe content clusters in simple language, offering me a clearer way to shape the system’s understanding of my preferences.
Interest media. As Gary Vaynerchuk brilliantly put it, there’s a shift happening from follower-based feeds, which he called social media, to interest-based discovery, or interest media. Insights show that platforms like Instagram are focusing on engagement-driven content rather than purely the accounts I follow. With this update, Instagram is transparent about the interests behind my recommendations.
Why we care. Matching user interests has become a priority in Instagram’s discovery process. If you’re creating content, it’s crucial to signal specific topics and audience intent to increase visibility in recommendations.
More controls are planned. Topics are just the beginning! Mosseri assured us that Instagram is also working on controls for people, moods, content types, and other signals.
Inspired by this post on Search Engine Land.
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