Instagram's Your Algorithm feature is now on the main feed. How to customize topics, what creators should know, and what it changes. Full guide.
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TL;DR
TL;DR
People are now telling Instagram exactly what topics they want to see.
If your content does not clearly fit one, you disappear. Inrō drives the engagement that keeps you on the list.
Your Algorithm is a personalization tool on Instagram that lets users explicitly tell the algorithm which topics they want to see more of and which to see less of. Instagram suggests an initial list of topics based on the user's in-app behaviour. The user adds, removes, or adjusts that list to recalibrate what gets recommended.
The feature first launched on Reels in October 2025, expanded to the Explore section in April 2026, and reached the main feed on June 10, 2026. The main feed launch is the biggest of the three rollouts because the home feed is where most users spend their time inside the app.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, framed the rollout as a response to user demand for "agency" over the experience. His own words on Threads: "People who spend so much time on these products should have real control over how they work." The new tool is the most direct version of that control Instagram has shipped to date.
Your Algorithm works by showing each user a list of topics Instagram has inferred from their behaviour, then letting the user edit that list to influence what gets recommended next. The list is generated automatically from likes, comments, saves, time spent, and other engagement signals.
Each topic appears in plain language, like "rescue dogs", "Mediterranean recipes", or "parenting humor". Behind the scenes, Instagram uses large language models to translate raw engagement signals into named, human-readable topics. This is a shift from previous algorithm models, which were largely opaque even to the people inside Instagram explaining them.
The rollout has progressed surface by surface:
Each addition or removal a user makes is applied to the recommendation system immediately. Visible changes in the feed take a few sessions to become noticeable, since the algorithm needs new impressions to test the updated weighting.
There is no limit on how many topics you can add, remove, or adjust. You can keep refining the list as your interests change.
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The feature has one significant limitation: you cannot use it to prioritize posts from accounts you actually follow. Your Algorithm works only with interest-based topics, not specific accounts. Searching for "posts from people I follow" returns a no-results error.
This is the most-requested capability among creators and the most pointed criticism of the rollout. Mosseri acknowledged it directly: "Who you follow used to be a meaningful tool people had for shaping their own experience, and as recommendations took over the main feed that tool quietly stopped working." His framing suggests the company is aware of the friction but is not currently building a fix.
For now, the dedicated Following feed (accessible from the home screen tab options) remains the only way to see purely follow-based content. Your Algorithm sits on top of recommendation-based ranking, not as a replacement for it.
The structural shift matters more than the feature itself. When users can name the topics they want to see, content that does not fit a clear, named topic becomes harder to surface. The algorithm needs to be able to categorize your content as something a user would actually type into their preferences.
Four practical implications for anyone creating content.
Niche clarity is now a distribution issue, not just a brand issue. A travel account that also posts food and finance gets harder to recommend, because there is no single topic that captures it. The cleaner the niche, the easier the algorithm classifies the content, and the more likely it appears when users add that topic to their list.
Engagement signals still drive recommendation within a topic. Even with user-side controls, the algorithm decides which posts to surface inside each chosen topic based on engagement. Comments, saves, shares, and DMs are still the strongest ranking signals.
Early-window engagement compounds. Posts that generate strong engagement in the first hour get distributed to more topic-matched users. Slow-engagement posts get fewer subsequent impressions, regardless of how well they match the topic.
DM activity is increasingly read as a quality signal. Mosseri's observation that "personal moments are moving to Stories and DMs" implies DM engagement is increasingly part of how Instagram judges a post's worth. Content that drives DM conversations may earn distribution that pure-comment content does not. For a wider view of distribution mechanics, the organic Instagram growth guide covers how engagement signals stack across surfaces.
If users now choose their topics and the algorithm decides which posts to show within those topics, the way to increase reach is to maximize the engagement signals that push your content to the top of the relevant topic queue.
Inrō's comment-to-DM automation does this directly. When you post a Reel or feed post with a clear CTA ("Comment X to get the link"), Inrō automatically DMs every commenter with the promised content. The comment count climbs, the DM volume climbs, and both are signals Instagram's algorithm uses to decide who else sees the post inside their topic-matched feed.
For a creator in a defined niche, this is what makes Your Algorithm work in your favour rather than against it. Users tell Instagram they want your topic. Instagram looks for the best posts to show inside that topic. Posts with high comment and DM activity rise to the top of the recommendation queue. Inrō runs the loop that drives both signals at scale.
Inrō sends one DM per commenter per post by default, so no one is messaged twice. Every contact lands in your Smart Inbox CRM for follow-up, which means the same engagement that pushed your post into more feeds also builds a contact list you can re-engage later.
Create your free Inrō account, and set up your first automation in less than 2 minutes.
Your Algorithm is a personalization feature that lets Instagram users see and adjust the topics the algorithm uses to recommend content. Users add, remove, or adjust topics like "rescue dogs" or "parenting humor". The feature launched on Reels in October 2025, on Explore in April 2026, and on the main feed in June 2026.
Open the Instagram app, go to your home feed, and tap the menu in the upper section to find Your Algorithm. The panel shows a list of topics Instagram has inferred from your activity. Scroll through the list, remove unwanted topics, and add new ones using the search function.
Open the Your Algorithm panel in the main feed, remove topics you do not want to see, and add topics you want more of. Changes are applied to the system immediately. Visible shifts in your feed take a few browsing sessions to become noticeable. There is no limit on how many times you can edit the list.
Your Algorithm lets you remove individual topics, but Instagram does not currently offer a one-tap reset that wipes the entire inferred interest profile and starts from zero. Removing topics one at a time is the closest available option. Clearing your search and browsing history affects activity logs but does not reset the algorithm's interest model.
The Your Algorithm panel sits in the main feed menu after you update to the latest version of the Instagram app. If the option does not appear, the feature has not yet rolled out to your account despite the global launch on June 10, 2026. Updating the app and waiting 24 to 48 hours typically resolves it.
The Your Algorithm trend refers to posts and Stories where users share screenshots of the topics Instagram has inferred from their activity. The trend went viral when the feature first launched on Reels in October 2025 and resurfaced with each expansion. Users typically share the funniest or most accurate topics the algorithm has assigned them.
Not through Your Algorithm. The feature only works with interest-based topics, not specific accounts. To see only follow-based content, switch to the dedicated Following feed from the home screen tab options. Adam Mosseri has acknowledged that prioritizing followed accounts is a frequent request but has not committed to building it into the main algorithm.
The most common reasons are an outdated Instagram app, or a delayed rollout to your specific account despite the global launch. Update the app through the App Store or Google Play. If the feature still does not appear after 48 hours, the rollout has not yet reached your account.
Not yet. As of June 2026, Your Algorithm is live on Reels, Explore, and the main feed only. There is no Stories integration. Mosseri has mentioned future work on people, moods, content types, and other dimensions, but no Stories rollout has been announced.
Two things matter most. First, niche clarity: content that clearly fits a single recognisable topic is easier for the algorithm to classify and recommend when a user adds that topic. Second, engagement signals: posts with strong comments, DMs, saves, and shares rank higher inside their topic queue. Comment-to-DM automation through Inrō multiplies both comment counts and DM activity, which improves a post's chance of surfacing in topic-matched feeds.
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