Instagram is experimenting with fresh ways to give users more control over what shows up in their feed. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, demonstrated several new interfaces for the platform’s “Your Algorithm” feature in a post this week.
Your Algorithm, which Instagram launched late last year, lets users specify topics they want to see more of and less of. The new tests take that further. One prototype adds a Your Algorithm menu that appears when you pull down on your feed. Another surfaces a customization prompt when swiping up on a Reel. A third option puts buttons directly beneath each Reel so you can tell Instagram whether you want to see more content like it.
Mosseri framed it as an evolution. “We want to evolve Your Algorithm from a setting to something that feels central to your experience on Instagram,” he said. He also cautioned that “some of this is testing now, some is coming soon, some might not work.”
The most popular comment on his post was blunt: “WE JUST WANT OUR ALGORITHM TO SHOW THE PPL WE FOLLOW.” It’s a fair point. Instagram has been criticized for prioritizing suggested content over posts from accounts people actually chose to follow. Whether these new controls address that core complaint or just add more knobs to a system that still pushes recommendations remains to be seen.
Instagram has been gradually rolling Your Algorithm to more areas of the app since its initial launch focused on Reels. The feature is now expanding to additional surfaces across the platform.
