After first launching it in early testing with a limited number of users in October last year, Instagram has today announced that all English-speaking users globally will now be able to access its “Your Algorithm” manual control option, giving you another way to define your Reels experience.
As you can see in this overview, you can access the “Your Algorithm” controls by tapping on the top right slider icon within the Reels feed on IG. From there, you can add and remove topics of interest to your Reels profile, while you can also tap on any interest to see examples of the types of videos that fit into that category.
Which could be a simple way to better control what you see in your Reels feed, and give people at least the illusion that they can influence their personal content algorithms to better align with their key topics of interest.
If, of course, they actually use it.
There is an inherent risk for IG here, because AI-recommended Reels are what’s driving all of the gains in user engagement, and by allowing people to dictate what they see in their feed, as opposed to the system determining this, that could reduce overall Reels usage.
But then again, Meta can also rest assured that most people, even though they want more control over this element, won’t actually use the feature.
We’ve seen this time and time again, from security changes, to data protections, to algorithm controls and feed preferences. People want these as options, so that they can feel more in control of their experience, but for the most part, they act more as a reassurance, based on their existence, not as a real control and manual input option.
Most users, especially these days, just want to log on and start scrolling, with the system showing them more of what they’re interested in. And as such, while there’s a demand for manual controls, in reality, few people are actually going to enact them, so the risk, I guess, is relatively small for Meta in this respect.
Though it will be interesting to see if people do take this up, and start manually refining their Reels feed based on these options.
In addition to expanded access to your Reels topic controls, Instagram is also giving people the opportunity to choose three top interests for their Reels feed in 2026.
So you can decide what you want to make your topic focus for the year, which will then help to guide the Reels algorithm to better align with your key interests.
It’s an interesting experiment, which is part of a broader shift towards enabling algorithm controls, in all social apps. Meta, in particular, is trying out various manual algorithm input measures, on Facebook, Threads and IG, with each giving users more ways to dictate what they want to see, or not, in-stream.
It’ll be interesting to see the cumulative impact of these, based on both how many people use them, and also how it relates to overall perception of Meta’s algorithmic manipulation, given that users now have a means to manually change their experience, if they choose.
I maintain that algorithms are the single most harmful element of modern media consumption, and that the removal of algorithmic feeds would significantly alter broader public perception, in many ways across many elements. But I also understand the value of algorithms for maximizing engagement, both from a platform and user perspective, and while giving people manual means to influence what they see is a perceptive step towards addressing this, I don’t think that it’s going to be a meaningful measure in itself.
