How does Instagram decide what you see first when you open the app? Why is one post shown to a huge number of users, while another is shown to almost no one? And how does Instagram decide what you see in Reels and Explore? A set of interesting questions that Instagram has answered (unfortunately not in detail).
Instagram bases what you see (and don't see) on thousands of signals. For each part of the app country email list your Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels, Instagram uses a different set of signals that determine the algorithm. For example, you'll see more posts from your best friends in your Feed and more posts from strangers in Explore. Instagram bases this on how and why users engage with these different parts of the app.
Feed and Stories algorithm
The algorithms behind Stories and your Feed are similar. This is because both your Feed and Stories consist of updates from the people you follow. To then determine the order of these updates, Instagram uses several signals. The four most important are:
1. Information about the post
This includes how popular the post is (how many likes), what time the post was made, and what location is associated with the post. And if it is a video: how long it is.