Instagram expands Your Algorithm to its main feed, letting users choose topics they want to see, and is working to support requests for people, moods, and more
Adam Mosseri wants AI to give users a sense of control over recommendations. — Instagram is going to let you tweak …
Context & Ripple Effects
Instagram’s recommendation system has moved steadily from the 2016 shift away from a chronological feed toward suggested content throughout the primary feed, alongside controls such as “Interested” feedback and the ability to reset recommendations.
The company introduced Your Algorithm for Reels in late 2025 as an AI-generated explanation of activity-derived topic signals. Extending it to the main feed makes that control layer relevant to a broader share of Instagram consumption.
First-order effects
- Users can directly tune topic-level recommendations in Instagram’s main feed rather than relying only on implicit engagement signals; Instagram is also preparing more natural-language-style requests around people and moods.
- Instagram’s ranking system gains explicit preference inputs across the feed, potentially changing which recommended posts receive distribution for users who adjust their settings.
Second-order effects
- Creators and publishers whose reach depends on recommendations may need to compete not only for engagement but also for alignment with the topics users actively select or suppress.
- The move raises the baseline for recommendation-product transparency and user controls that competing social platforms may face, particularly where feeds rely heavily on suggested content.
Third-order effects
- If topic controls and conversational requests become widely used, social-feed ranking could evolve from opaque behavioral optimization toward a hybrid model combining inferred interests with declared preferences.
- This remains an incremental control mechanism, not a return to a follower-only or chronological feed: the structural direction is more configurable algorithmic feeds rather than less algorithmic distribution.
The trend: Instagram is turning AI-driven recommendation from a largely invisible ranking system into a configurable interface through which users can steer what the feed optimizes for.