Instagram Updated Their Algorithm! Here’s What You Need To Know…

earlier this year Instagram posted a Blog called Instagram ranking explained sharing the most upto-date information that we have on how exactly the algorithm works so what's changed what's different than before this is the only video that you'll need to watch to understand the Instagram algorithm that is until they post another blog in like 2 to 3 years as always time stamps are below because this is a jam-packed one so use them if you're looking for something specific first we're going to make sure you have an understanding of what the algorithm is then we're going to dive into to how each algorithm works and then we'll wrap it up with the key differences that we need to point out between 202's algorithm and this newest one so let's get into it so what is the algorithm Instagram doesn't have a singular algorithm that oversees what people do and don't see on their App instead they use a variety of algorithms depending on which part of the app you're on feed stories explore reals Etc and all of these places have their own algorithm tailored to how people interact with that feature how often does the algorithm change all the time and very rarely which makes no sense at all so let me explain if you're on YouTube like at all and you watch videos here you probably notice a new Instagram updated their algorithm video like every two seconds and that's because every algorithm is unique to the person that's interacting with it so if you as a user change how you interact with a part of Instagram you might start noticing new patterns and behaviors from Instagram so that's why you have a bunch of people making these videos like oh my gosh the algorithm updated again you know your unique algorithm is always changing depending on what posts you like don't like what stories you watch and don't watch and swipe through like the Instagram algorithm is always changing so the next time you see a video like that pop up on your YouTube page don't freak out because the actual foundations of what the algorithms look for doesn't change often okay like Instagram headquarters isn't going in every day like okay let's make sure reals are performing 75% better than infeed posts today oh tomorrow let's change it and let's make sure that photos perform better than reals and then oh let's not show this person's story like they're not going in every day and changing the basis of what the algorithm is looking for like the last two times we had an update for the algorithm was 2021 when they posted their article shedding light on how Instagram works and then after that Sometime Late 2022 early 2023 when Adam aeri went to Instagram and he was like okay we've gone too far into video we understand that we're going to take a step back and let the user decide what type of feature is going to be on their feed that was the last big change in update so now that we have this article we have the most upto-date understanding and Foundation of how the algorithm is currently working and will probably continue to be until we get the next big update did that does that make sense like we're probably chilling on this algorithm basis for a good few months to maybe year or two basically to sum up how often the algorithm changes if user Behavior changes the algorithm follows user behavior for example if Instagram users as a whole all of a sudden start just loving reals reals are going to pop up more because that's what the algorithm's identifying if all of a sudden as a community everybody is ignoring reals and going leaning into like story posts or going live that's what the algorithm is going to push the algorithm identifies a user behavior and then follows it so the four main algorithms we're actually going to break down today are feed stories explore and reals and for all of this information I am going to be using their blog post that I mentioned at the beginning of the video to describe all of these algorithms and how they work so it's not just me making this up it's literally what Instagram says word for word just breaking it down for you to understand first let's talk about your feed right now there are three feed views you have following favorite and default when you switch to the following feed you will see most recent posts from the people that you follow meaning these posts will show up in chronological order when you switch to the favorite feed you will see the latest from accounts that you chose to be your favorite Now default is the main view that you see when opening up your Instagram app when you're on the default feed the algorithm will suggest posts that it thinks you will like based on multiple factors so basically Instagram describes your feed as being a place to help you catch up with friends family and interests now how do they know who your friends and families are or who what your interests are they use something called signals there are thousands of signals that Instagram uses for all of their algorithms for example information about the post itself information about the person who made the post what your preferences are who you follow the content you like the time a post was shared are you using your phone or web browser do you engage more with reals with photos like there's thousands of signals that Instagram uses now when it comes to feed the most important signals roughly an order of importance are your activity information about the post information about the person who posted and your history of interacting with someone with your activity they're looking at posts that you've liked shared saved or commented on in the past to help them understand what sort of content you might be interested in from there they're looking at information about the post ranges from how the post is doing engagement wise so how many people have liked it how quickly people are liking commenting sharing and saving a post but also more more mundane information like about the content itself what is it about when was it posted what location is attached to it thirdly information about the person who posted this will help them get a sense for how interesting that person might be to you so they'll look at signals like how many times you've interacted with that person over the last few weeks and which kind of goes into the fourth one being your history of interacting with someone if you have a history of interacting with somebody they'll be able to gauge if you're interested in seeing more regularly from a particular person if you guys are commenting on each other's posts more frequently you'll probably pop up on each other's feeds after analyzing all those signals from there Instagram will try to predict How likely you are to engage with a post so for in feed the five interactions that they look at most are How likely you are to spend a few seconds on a post comment on it like it share it and tap on that person's profile photo the more likely they think you are to take those action the higher they're going to rank a post in y