Instagram reveals the secret sauce powering its algorithm
Instagram is chill with the decision it made two years ago to ditch the chronological feed in favor of an algorithm. The older way of showing you your follow list's shares isn't coming back.
Ever since the change, though, the algorithm has been something of a mystery. Shares surface in your feed without any apparent rhyme or reason, and Instagram has kept quiet on exactly how those under-the-hood decisions are made... until now.
During a recent media tour at its headquarters in San Francisco, the Facebook-owned company laid out the various factors that are weighed before an Instagram post appears in your personal feed (h/t TechCrunch). It comes down to three primary considerations: Interest, recency, and relationship.
Interest is the most subject to interpretation; the algorithm ranks the posts it might show you based on your past interactions (or lack thereof) with similar content. Recency is, literally, how new the post is; something that's just been shared is more likely to surface than something that was shared weeks ago. Relationship is a measure of your interactions with different accounts, via comments, tagging, and the like.
The algorithm also weighs a trio of secondary considerations when it populates your feed: How often you look at Instagram, with an eye toward showing you the best posts since your last visit; how many people you follow, so you're not seeing the same person's posts all the time if your follow pool is deep; and how much time you typically spend browsing.
Instagram continues to listen to feedback from those wanting to see the chronological feed brought back, but it's not in the company's current plans. The algorithm is here to stay because it works. Users are more engaged, and -- according to Instagram -- they're seeing more posts from their closest follows, be it people or brands, than they did before.
More than that, for all the feedback that's come in around the move to an algorithmic feed, no one criticism has stood out.
"As we’ve dug in more and tried to understand why people ask for chronological, it’s not a universal thing," Instagram feed product lead Julian Gutman told Recode. "It isn’t a single reason that people want chrono, and I think what we’re really trying to understand is what are those different frustrations that people have and how can we build that in to their personalized feed experience."
So there you have it. Whether or not you agree, Instagram's data suggests that the algorithm is giving you a better experience than the chronological feed ever did. And this new push for further transparency seems to be motivated by a desire to spell out exactly how and why that's the case.
Topics Instagram Social Media
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
