In this article, GUDJOB will shed light on questions about Instagram's algorithm such as "How does Instagram decide what to show me first?"; “Why do some of my posts get more views than others?”.
What is “algorithm”?
When it first launched in 2010, Instagram was a single stream of photos in chronological order.
Each part of the app – Feed, Explore, Reels – uses its own algorithm tailored to how people use it. People tend to search for their closest friends in Story, but they want to explore something completely new in Explore. Instagram ranks things differently in different parts of the app, based on how people use them.
How Instagram Ranks “Feed” and “Story”
Over the years, Instagram has found that Feed and Stories are where people want to see content from friends, family, and those they are closest to.
Start by determining what will appear in the first place.
Next, Instagram will collect user signals to make predictions.
Information about the post. These are signals about a post's popularity, including: how many people have liked it, the specific content, when it was posted, the length (if it's a video), and the location (if any) attached to it.
Information about the person who posted. This helps Instagram know how interesting that person might be to you, and includes signals like how many times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks.
Your activity. This helps Instagram understand what you might be interested in and includes signals like how many posts you've liked.
History of your interactions with someone. This tells Instagram how interested you are in general in seeing posts from a particular person.
From there, Instagram makes a set of predictions.
Instagram is all about letting people express themselves, but when someone posts content that could jeopardize the safety of others, they intervene.
Another important case to mention is misinformation.
How Instagram Ranks “Explore”
Explore is designed to help users discover new things – images and videos that Instagram thinks will fit their personality and interests.
The best way to predict how interested a user is in something is to predict how likely they are to do something with the post.
Information about the post. Here Instagram looks at the popularity of a post, including signals like how many and how quickly others like, comment, share and save the post.
Your history of interactions with the person who posted. Most likely the post was shared by someone you've never heard of, but if you've interacted with them, that tells Instagram you might be interested in what they shared.
Your activity. These are signals like posts you've liked, saved, or commented on, and how you've interacted with posts in Explore in the past.
Information about the person who posted. These are signals like how many times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks, to help find engaging content from a variety of people.
In addition to its community guidelines, Instagram also has rules for what it recommends in places like Explore.
How Instagram Ranks “Reels”
Reels are designed to entertain users.
However, with Reels, Instagram specifically focuses on what can entertain users.
Your activity. Instagram looks at things like Reels that you've liked, commented on, and interacted with recently.
Your history of interactions with the person who posted. Like in Explore, it's possible that the video was created by someone you've never heard of, but if you've interacted with them, it shows that you might be interested in what they have to say.
Information about Reels. These are signals about the content within the video, such as the audio track, understanding the video based on pixels and the entire frame, and popularity.
Information about the person who posted. Instagram considers popularity to help find engaging content from many people and gives everyone the opportunity to find their audience.
The same “Proposed Guidelines” will also apply to Reels.
How can you influence what you see?
How you use Instagram greatly affects what you see and don't see.
Choose your close friends. You can choose your close friends for Story.
Ignore people you don't care about. You can hide the account if you want to stop seeing what they share but are hesitant about unfollowing them altogether.
Mark suggested posts as “Not interested”. Whenever you see a recommendation, whether it's in Explore or in Feed, you can indicate you're "not interested" in that post.
Instagram has created more features for users to experience.
