In a blog post, Adam Mosseri, the Instagram manager explains the behavior of the algorithm when you use the app.
Although the social network Instagram had nearly one billion users in 2018 according to figures from Statista, in 2021 the social network exceeded 1.22 billion users with more than 500 million daily connections. With so many subscribers, the platform must always offer relevant content to attract more and more users. And for that, you need a very good algorithm. Instagram manager Adam Mosseri explained in a blog post how the algorithm injected into the social network gets you into its clutches.
Instagram boosted thanks to algorithms
Instagram has several algorithms, and each has its own task. In 2010, the platform simply displays a photo feed chronologically. However, with the growth of the social network, finding relevant content was more complicated. According to research, nearly 70% of users were missing valuable information. The first algorithm arrived shortly after in order to classify each publication. The latter learns how you surf in order to offer you quality content.
Over the years, other algorithms have emerged including Reels, Feeds, and Explore. These are used a lot, in particular, to find influential people or even relatives. Adam Mosseri says in his blog post that “Each part of the app – Feed, Explore, Reels – uses its own algorithm tailored to the way people use it. People tend to look for their closest friends in stories, but they want to discover something entirely new in Explorer. We categorize things differently in different parts of the app, depending on how people use them. ”
Explore, a slightly different algorithm
While Feed and Reels algorithms bring you to content created by people who follow you, Explore’s works differently. Indeed, according to Adam Mosseri, it works through your interactions and viewing time.
Instagram will first figure out for itself what style of photo or video you like to watch. The first steps of the social network algorithm will therefore have the task of filtering all this out. Secondly, it will refer to your actions. The latter will understand if you like, share or comment on a photo of a dish, a dessert, or the new clothing collection of your favorite brand. Thereafter, the algorithm will begin to analyze other people who like photos in order to suggest positions that are closest to your universe.
In fact, here are the main steps performed by Instagram’s algorithm:
Job Information: Here we take a look at the popularity of an article. These are signals like how many and how quickly other people like, comment, share, and save a post. These signals are much more important in Explore than in Feed or Stories.
Your interaction history 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 it gives us an idea of the interest that you could have for what they shared.
Your Activity: These are signals such as which posts you liked, saved, or commented on and how you’ve interacted with posts in Explore in the past.
Poster Information: These are signals like the number of times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks, to help find compelling content from a wide range of people.
Reels, an operation similar to Explore
For their part, the Reels are no different than that. They follow the same steps as Explore in order to offer you relevant content that is likely to entertain you. However, Instagram will be able to ask you if you found the non-subscribed person’s content funny or not. Instagram’s algorithm will analyze the videos you watch and the content (style, music, etc.) but also:
Your Activity: We review things like Reels that you liked, commented on, and engaged with recently. These signals help us understand what content might be of interest to you.
Your interaction history with the person who posted: As in Explore, it’s likely that the video was made by someone you’ve never heard of, but if you’ve interacted with them, that gives us some idea of how much interest you might have in what they shared.
Reel Information: These are signals about video content, such as audio track, pixel-based video comprehension, and full frames, as well as popularity.
Poster Information: We consider popularity to help find compelling content with a wide range of people and give everyone a chance to find their audience.
Adam Mosseri also explains that “until recently we placed less importance on these stories because we regularly heard that people were more interested in the original stories. But we see a wave of shared posts in big moments – from the World Cup to social unrest – and at those times people expected their stories to reach more people than they did, so we did. are arrested. ”
As reported by The Verge, Instagram’s algorithm is nothing without users. You are the one helping the algorithm deliver relevant content.
