Instagram’s found a new way to keep you hooked on scrolling — the Suggested Posts feature!
Now when you reach the end of “new” content on your feed, you’ll begin to see posts from accounts you don’t follow, just like the Explore Page.
Ready to learn about this update?
Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram’s new Suggested Posts feature.
Up until now, the only place to discover “new” content on Instagram was the Search & Explore page — but that’s changed now with the launch of Suggested Posts.
Prior to the update, when you reached the end of new content on your Instagram feed, you’d come across a “You’re All Caught Up” message.
Instagram initially launched the “You’re All Caught Up” notification back in 2018 as a way to help users keep track of their seen posts and also to help prevent overuse of the app.
But with the launch of Suggested Posts, your Instagram feed is effectively never-ending. You can scroll and scroll to your heart’s delight!
While some users have been receptive to the new feature, there has been some criticism that it could lead to users spending more time on Instagram, which could negatively impact mental health.
Instagram’s director of product, Robby Stein, actually addressed these concerns in an interview with TechCrunch, saying, “Our goal is to make it clear when you’re all caught up so you can decide how you want to best use your time. We see people continuing to seek out more posts they’re interested in after catching up with their feeds, so we wanted to learn from that and make it easier to go a little deeper for those who choose to do so.”
How Instagram Suggested Posts are Selected
One of the biggest questions around Suggested Posts is how they’re selected.
Is it simply an extension of the content you’d find on the Explore page? Or is some other algorithm at play?
Well, according to Instagram, the suggestions are “based on posts from accounts like the ones you follow and posts similar to the ones you like or save.”
So basically, the answer is… unclear! As you may know, the Instagram algorithm is influenced by a number of factors, including your relationship with your followers, the kinds of content you engage with most, and more.
So what gets served to you on the Explore page is basically a combination of all of your Instagram behaviors.
It’s hard to say if the new Suggested Posts section of your feed will be influenced by all of these behaviors, or if it’s more of a paired down version of the Instagram algorithm.
In any case, you do have some control over the Suggested Posts you see.
As with the Explore page, if come across a piece of content that you aren’t interested in, you can tap the ellipsis button in the top-right corner of that post and then tap “Not Interested.”
Your response will be reflected in future suggestions on your feed.
What do you think of the new Suggested Posts feature? Are you happy with the addition or do you prefer using the Explore page for discovering new content?
Let us know in the comments!
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