Instagram revealed that it uses a variety of algorithms on the platform
faced criticism that instagram harms the accessibility of certain publications, social network Decided to open the game up and explain how it distributes and prioritizes user-generated content. In a post by the director of the social network on the Instagram blog this Tuesday, the 8th, Adam Mosseri, provided some details about how the platform’s algorithms work, which organize what you see prominently in your app.
Mosseri’s first explanation was that Instagram doesn’t just use an algorithm that controls the entire user experience. “Instagram doesn’t have an algorithm that looks at what people do and see in the app. We use a Variety of Algorithms, classifiers and procedures, each with its own purpose”, the executive said.
Furthermore, the post justifies why Instagram uses algorithms – when the social network was launched in 2010, the application featured all content produced chronologically. According to Mosseri, as membership grew, “it became impossible for most people to see everything.” According to the social network, in 2016, users lost almost 70% of everything they posted, including almost half of those posted by those closest to them.
The solution, then, was to organize a personalized feed according to user interests, or what Instagram believed. Plus, split that interest into different areas of Instagram: Feed, Explore, and Reels.
Feed and Stories organization
The post said that Instagram understands feeds and Stories as places where people want to see content from their friends, family and those closest to them. But how does the social network find out who is closest?
To create this ranking, Instagram built a series of steps where they identify what they call a “signal”. These prompts cover different data: “The number of times you’ve liked a video since a post was shared, whether you’re using the phone or the web.”
The platform chief classified the signals with a “fixed order of importance” as follows:
Post info: These are indications about the popularity of a post (such as the number of likes) and more general information about the content: when it was posted, how long it played if it was a video, and where it was. is, if any, assigned to it.
Poster Information: Gives you a sense of how interesting the user might be to you and includes cues such as how often you’ve interacted over the past few weeks.
Activity: Indicates what you might be interested in and includes hints such as how many posts you like.
Interaction History: Measures how interested you are in seeing a particular person’s posts in general. An example is whether or not you comment on each other’s posts.
Using these parameters, Instagram makes a series of predictions based on how likely the user is to interact with the post. In short: Instagram shows what it thinks you’ll like and can take action on the content.
Mosseri explains that in Feed “the five interactions we looked closely at are likely that you will spend a few seconds on a post, comment, like, save, and tap on the profile photo. The more likely you are to take an action, and the more weight we put on that action, the more posts you’ll see.”
To explore
Dynamics is quite different from the others on the Search tab of Instagram. According to the social network, the purpose of this space is to help you discover new things. The post clarifies that Explore is a grid of recommendations: It’s “a set of pics and videos that we found out for you – which is quite different from Feeds and Stories, where the majority of what you see comes from those accounts.” that you follow”.
First, the service analyzes the posts with which the user interacts the most (the ones you’ve liked, saved and commented on earlier). From there, the platform analyzes what other users with similar tastes like yours also prefer.
The example given by Instagram is based on the famous post about food. “This means that if you’re interested in Chinese dumplings, you can check out posts on related topics, such as gyoza and dim sum, without understanding what each post is about.”
answer
One of Instagram’s newest features, short videos answer, gained prominence on the platform in recent months. According to the social network, Reels’ main idea is entertainment: “We conduct surveys and ask whether people find a specific video funny or funny, and we learn from feedback what improvements would be made to keep people entertained.” Keeping an eye on the producer minor,” explains Mosseri.
The post also states that the most important predictions are based on the user’s likelihood of watching the reel to the end, finding that video funny or funny, and being inspired to create content.
Follow the same guidelines as what you don’t see on the Reel and Explore tabs. The Platform refrains from displaying content that it finds disturbing or sensitive. The text highlights political issues: “We also refrain from recommending reels for other reasons (…) that focus on political issues or which are asked by political figures, parties or government officials.”
silence on instagram
Instagram also tried to explain how it contacts those who accuse the service of being silent or practicing it. shadow ban (the practice of partially blocking a user or his content). Text acknowledges that Instagram isn’t very clear in explaining what causes a post to be removed, or whether it’s recommended or not, which generates many interpretations.
The platform has further pledged to clarify things further: “We’re developing in-app notifications to let people quickly know why, for example, their post has been removed, and to let people know.” We are exploring ways of what they post that would go against our Recommendations Guidelines”. In addition, Instagram says that it will discuss this topic in future posts. Here we needed to say more.
Can I influence what appears on Instagram?
The post says yes: How you use Instagram greatly affects what you see and don’t see on the social network. The company also provided tips on influencing the app to show certain content.
Choose your closest friends: You can choose your best friends for Stories. This feature was created to allow you to share content only with the people closest to you, but it also gives the platform priority to those friends in feeds and stories.
Silence the people you’re not interested in: You can disable an account’s posts if you want to stop seeing what it shares, but you’re hesitant to follow it entirely. Silent people will not know that you have shut them down.
Mark a recommended post as “Not interested”: Whenever you see a suggestion, whether in Explore or Feed, you can indicate that you’re “not interested” in that post.
Ultimately, Mosseri says that the platform should “continue to improve classification technology and, of course, make fewer mistakes”, which interfere with each user’s experience with the application.
