Instagram developers are aware that sometimes the application’s recommendations do not convince their users. As a solution, they are testing a new feature that will allow their consumers to start from scratch with their algorithm, as announced by Meta.
Instagram is going to copy TikTok again. The Chinese video app allows you to completely update the account so that the algorithm starts from the beginning, as if we had just created the profile. Now, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network is working on implementing the same tool and, as indicated in Meta, it will arrive “globally” soon.
Resetting the Instagram algorithm will allow users to retrain it from scratch. This is perfect for those who find the app starting to recommend posts that don’t interest them and want to revamp it to “educate” them from the beginning. Thus, Instagram will ignore what you have seen or liked before without having to delete the account.
As Meta has announced on its blog, the functionality will be available for all accounts, regardless of age. “We want to ensure that all Instagram users, especially teenagers, have safe, positive and age-appropriate experiences and feel that the time they spend on Instagram is valuable,” they say in the statement. “We want to give teens new ways to shape their Instagram experience, so they can continue to reflect their passions and interests as they evolve.”
Everything we know about Instagram’s algorithmic reset
The release date of the feature that will allow you to reset recommendations from the beginning is not yet known. However, Meta has reported that it will be available “soon,” and that is good news for those who are not convinced by its algorithm. Mark Zuckerberg’s team anticipates that “with just a few taps, you can delete your recommended content in Explore, Reels and Feed and start again.”
While Meta hasn’t mentioned whether it will also start from scratch with recommended users when sharing a post, we hope so. When we stop following and talking to someone, whether it’s a friend or partner, their profile continues to appear when we want to send a photo or video via private message (DM). This can be annoying and updating the algorithm in this regard could be a solution for many.
Be that as it may, we know that the sections of the main interface, the magnifying glass and the Reels will not be based on your searches or “Likes” from the past. When you clear your algorithm to start from scratch, “your recommendations will start to personalize again over time.” This way, your algorithm can adapt to your new interests without taking into account the previous ones.
It should be noted that the Instagram developers have thought that, if you reset the algorithm, you may want to clean up your followers. For this reason, when you go to reset your profile, the social network will give you the option to review the accounts you follow and unfollow those that share content that you no longer want to see.
“I’m not interested” from Instagram
To date, there was only one way to monitor recommendations and train the algorithm. This involved indicating that we were not interested in something when it appeared in our feed. To do this, we had to click on the three dots in the corner of the post. There, all you have to do is click on the option “I’m not interested.” In this way, Instagram understood that it should stop recommending similar posts to us.
This tool, while useful, was not perfect. It could be annoying to always have to flag when a post didn’t fit our interests. It was a very laborious process that was sometimes ineffective. With the algorithm reset, things will change.
