Instagram’s algorithm explained: Why you see certain content and how to change it

If you’ve been wanting to take a look at your Instagram timeline but need help understanding the app’s algorithm, Instagram has clarified why you’re seeing certain posts and may not be seeing others. . Instagram says there’s no single algorithm responsible for managing your feed, but multiple algorithms, classifiers, and processes are embedded in Feeds, Stories, Discover, Stories, and Find. sword.

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In a blog postInstagram says that people tend to want to see their friends’ Stories, discover new people to follow in Explore and entertain in Stories, so the algorithms are tailored to those interests.

How Instagram ranks your Feed

Your Instagram feed or timeline is where you’ll see posts from people you follow. But in the Feed, you’ll also find suggested posts and ads. These posts and ads can be photo or video carousels.

Instagram organizes your Feed by including recent posts from people you follow and posts from people you don’t follow but Instagram thinks you’ll be interested in. Instagram recommends these posts based on who you’ve followed and what you’ve liked recently.

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Instagram says it tries to include posts from people you follow and people you don’t follow in your Feed. Instagram then pulls information from your liked, shared, and saved history, and uses a queue from those posts to suggest similar posts as your activity signals what you like and dislike.

If you like, comment, share and take your time on a post, Instagram will suggest similar posts, similar to how TikTok’s algorithm works.

How Instagram ranks Stories

Stories are video or photo posts that are a few seconds long that temporarily appear on someone’s account and disappear after 24 hours. Stories are also visible to you based on Instagram’s algorithm. In Stories, Instagram looks at your viewing and interaction history and how close you are to the post’s author.

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If you see a lot of your best friend’s Stories, direct messages them often, and like all of their posts, that friend’s Story will be the first to show up on the side. next to your profile icon in the Home tab. If you close someone’s story before the time runs out, don’t engage with their posts often, and Instagram thinks you’re not close to that person, you’re less likely to see their Story first.

How Instagram ranks Discover

Previously, the Explore page was where Instagram users went to discover new content, people, hashtags, and locations to follow. The mission behind the Explore page hasn’t changed, but Instagram’s algorithms have changed the way it recommends content in Discover for you.

Instagram looks at your past likes, saves, shares, and comments, and recommends posts to you in Discover based on those metrics. Instagram will then sort posts in Discover based on your interests and show you the most interesting ones first.

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Instagram’s Discover algorithm is very similar to the Feed algorithm but guesses a little more about your interests because the content and creators in Explore are new to you. So you’re not always interested in what’s in Discover, but if you see a post you don’t like, you can click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the post and select “Don’t care.” heart”.

By choosing content that you are not interested in, you can try changing your Instagram Discovery algorithm, and it may show you the content you like better.

How Instagram ranks Stories

Reels’ Recommended Content Algorithm is similar to Discover in that most of the content in Reels comes from people you don’t follow. But Reels has “an emphasis on entertainment,” according to Instagram.

Since Stories are short-form video content, its algorithm works very similarly to TikTok’s For You page algorithm. If you reshare a Story, watch until the end, like it, or check out the Story’s audio page, you let Instagram know that you liked the Story and can view Stories similar to Stories there.

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But Instagram also looks at Story creators’ follower counts and engagement to recommend their content to Story followers, though it’s unclear how those metrics contribute. on the post’s visibility to potential followers.

How to try to tweak your Instagram algorithms

In the early days of Instagram, before in-app shopping or Instagram influencers, one Your Feed consisted only of people you followed. Your feed is in chronological order, and you can scroll to the end, signaling that you’ve seen all of your content that day.

Now that the algorithms have become more sophisticated, you have less control over what you see, and the algorithms dictate what you absorb. However, you can tweak some settings to send signals to Instagram’s algorithms to show you more of what you want to see on Instagram.

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You can snooze suggested articles in 30 daysjust glance at your Following tab, create a Best friend list, mute people you don’t want to see without blocking them, tune Control sensitive contentfreely use the Don’t Care feature and unfollow those you don’t like.

All of these adjustments will signal to Instagram what you want to see and what you don’t. And after tweaking everything to your liking, check if your Discover, Stories, Stories and other recommended content has a new tone. If so, you’ve successfully impacted Instagram’s algorithms.