Instagram tests new tools to customize content feeds

Instagram is testing new ways to let people steer the topics that shape their feed, extending a control called Your Algorithm that already lets users see more or less of certain subjects. The company is also widening teen-facing safeguards, a sign that the fight over algorithmic power is now tied to parental oversight, age-appropriate content and who gets to decide what shows up on a young person’s screen.

The tools Instagram has already put in place are narrow but real. Your Algorithm launched last December on Reels and Explore in English-speaking countries, and Meta said it would soon come to the main Feed. Users can reset recommendations across Explore, Reels and Feed for a fresh start, then rebuild their suggestions over time. Instagram also gives people smaller controls, including Interested, Not interested and Hidden Words, while teens can switch to a Following Feed to see posts from accounts they follow in chronological order.

Meta has paired those controls with a broader teen-safety push. On June 2, the company said Teen Accounts’ new 13+ content settings were expanding globally across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, and that Instagram was testing a new feature to help teens see more variety and avoid seeing the same kinds of content repeatedly. Meta said 9 out of 10 teens have stayed in the 13+ setting since it launched in the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada last October. In a survey at the end of April, fewer than 2 percent of Facebook posts recommended to teens were judged inappropriate by most parents.

Parents are getting a closer look at the interests behind a teen’s feed, but not the feed itself. Meta said parents and guardians can now view the general topics their teens engage with, and soon some will get notifications when a teen adds a new interest to the algorithm. The company gave examples like basketball, photography and musicals, and said the supervised teen experience shows parents only the broad categories teens want to see more of, not the individual topics or content. That makes the system more legible, but it still leaves Instagram’s ranking model in charge of what counts as relevant in the first place. For teens, parents and creators, the practical question is how much agency a topic slider really offers when the platform still owns the machine underneath it.