instagram wants to make algorithm customisation a core part of the app, not a buried setting

At a glance:\n- Instagram is moving its Your Algorithm feature from a hidden setting to in‑feed gestures and per‑Reel controls.\n- New controls include a pull‑down gesture in the main feed, a swipe‑up prompt on Reels, and buttons under each Reel to adjust topic preference.\n- Despite the changes, many users still demand a chronological feed of accounts they follow, highlighting a tension between discovery and curation.\n\n## What’s new with Your Algorithm\nInstagram head Adam Mosseri previewed new ways to surface Your Algorithm, the feature that lets users specify which topics they want to see more or less of. In an Instagram post this week, Mosseri said the goal is to evolve the tool “from a setting to something that feels central to your experience on Instagram.” The prototypes include a pull‑down gesture in the main feed that brings up the Your Algorithm menu, a swipe‑up prompt on individual Reels, and buttons beneath each Reel to indicate whether the user wants to see more or fewer like it. Mosseri cautioned that ‘some of this is testing now, some is coming soon, some might not work.’\n\nYour Algorithm was launched in December 2025 for Reels, then expanded to Explore and eventually the main feed. The feature shows users an AI‑generated summary of the topics influencing their recommendations and lets them adjust preferences. Changes apply across Feed, Reels, and Explore simultaneously.\n\n## How Instagram is changing the experience\nThe new prototypes make that customisation available without navigating to a settings menu. A pull‑down gesture in the feed or a swipe‑up on a Reel puts the controls directly in the flow of content consumption. The per‑Reel buttons are the most granular option, letting users give real‑time feedback on individual pieces of content without interrupting their scroll.\n\nInstagram now competes for attention with TikTok’s interest‑based algorithm and YouTube Shorts’ recommendation engine, both of which prioritise content from accounts users do not follow. Your Algorithm is Instagram’s attempt to give users a visible lever over that system without abandoning the recommendation model that drives engagement. Whether surfacing the controls through gestures rather than menus changes the dynamic is the question Meta’s product teams across Instagram and Threads are testing.\n\n## Why users still want a chronological feed\nThe most popular comments on Mosseri’s post made the same request. As one user put it: “WE JUST WANT OUR ALGORITHM TO SHOW THE PPL WE FOLLOW.” The disconnect between what Instagram is building, topic‑level tuning of an AI‑driven recommendation engine, and what many users want, a chronological feed of accounts they chose to follow, has defined the platform’s relationship with its audience for years. Meta has been rethinking how its algorithms surface content, particularly for younger users, but the core tension between discovery and curation remains unresolved.