Instagram is experimenting with additional ways to give users a level of control over recommendations in the app. The update aims to make it easier for people to tell IG’s system what content they like and don’t like in-stream.
Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri said that Instagram is looking into more ways to make users aware of this option, as well as providing more access points to its algorithm control features. The new features build on the app’s existing Your Algorithm control option, which is gradually being expanded to all users.
As per Mosseri: “We’re working on making Your Algorithm feel more present and useful across Instagram […] some of this is testing now, some is coming soon, some might not work.”
Mosseri shared four examples IG is considering, with the first being a simplified access process to the Your Algorithm panel from the home screen.
With this, users would be able to drag the screen down to access the Your Algorithm panel, where they’d then be able to add and remove topics that the system has tagged to them, based on their engagement activity.
Instagram is also considering inserting direct access to its topic control option between Reels in-stream.
There could also be lower function bar control options for recommended Reels, so users could access the Your Algorithm screen and easily signal whether they’re interested or not.
Finally, Instagram is also experimenting with conversational prompts to refine its recommendations, which would make it easier for users to improve their feed without specifying topics.
Mosseri said that, ideally, this will make the algorithm “feel like something you talk to rather than something that happens to you.” That’s in line with his vision of making users’ IG experiences more personalized, with artificial intelligence systems now able to take in a broader range of cues.
And it is helpful, or at least interesting. But it doesn’t address every concern, and given that most people won’t bother to refine their recommendations, it also feels more relevant as a concept than a practical tool.
On the first point, many IG users have repeatedly called for a feed that just shows them content from people and profiles they’ve manually chosen to follow. Meta hasn’t provided this, and that’s because algorithm-defined experiences drive way more engagement than letting users dictate the action themselves.
In that sense, Meta’s algorithm control option seems more about the illusion of control than actual agency over the experience.
On the second note, the fact remains that despite Meta providing this as an option, most people are not going to use it.
This has come up time and time again with security changes, data protections, algorithm controls and feed preferences. People demand these as options so they can feel more in control of their experience. But for the most part, these tools end up providing more value as a reassurance, but don’t provide a real control and manual input option.
Most people, especially in the algorithm-defined era, simply want to log on and start scrolling, with the system learning from their preferences as they go. TikTok’s increasingly perceptive feed algorithm cemented this as a UI process, and now, people are probably far less likely to dig into their settings, because they’re used to just being shown what they’ll like.
Instagram knows this, and it’d be interesting to see what the actual usage data is on its Your Algorithm tool. Making the option more prevalent should increase this, but it still feels like more of a PR exercise from Meta, as it looks to reduce the pressure around its influence over users.
But it is another consideration, which, at least in theory, could have a big impact.
Meta is unlikely to risk any major losses in usage as a result, so the company probably won’t give users too much control, or make this too prevalent, especially if manual editing of interests reduces time spent in the app.
But users could soon have another way to tell Instagram’s algorithm what they like.
