Instagram Moves Feed Customisation Out of Buried Settings

Instagram wants to turn algorithm customisation from a buried settings menu into a core, always-visible part of the app, according to a report by The Next Web. That's a structural product shift, not a cosmetic one — and it signals how Meta expects feed control to work going forward.

Today, if you want Instagram to stop pushing certain content at you, you dig into settings, find the "Not interested" options, and hope the signal sticks. The Next Web reports Instagram's plan is to surface that kind of control directly in the main experience, so ranking adjustments become something users do constantly rather than once and forget.

What does this change for marketers and creators?

Plenty, if the rollout lands as described. When users can tune their feed frictionlessly, the algorithm's job stops being a black box inferred from passive signals — taps, dwell time, shares — and starts blending in explicit, deliberate preferences. Content that earns passive engagement but not active preference could lose distribution.

The practical implications for practitioners:

• Reach modelling gets harder. Explicit user tuning means the same post can perform differently across deliberately curated feeds, so average reach numbers become less predictive.
• Audience segmentation sharpens. Users who actively opt in to a topic are higher-intent; that's valuable signal for content strategy, even if it fragments your reach base.
• Creative pressure shifts. If customisation is one tap away, mediocre-fit content doesn't just underperform — it risks getting tuned out of the feed entirely.

Official word versus what's confirmed

The report describes intent, not a shipped feature. The Next Web frames this as what Instagram "wants" to do, and there's no confirmed launch date, regional rollout scope, or interface detail in the source material. Treat any screenshot or feature leak circulating on X or LinkedIn with scepticism until Meta confirms specifics — AI-generated "leaked UI" images around algorithm changes are a recurring pattern.

Instagram has form here. The platform has spent years oscillating between chronological and algorithmic feeds, and it already offers users multiple feed views (Following, Favourites) alongside interest-based ranking. Moving customisation into the core app would extend that existing architecture rather than replace it.

Why Meta would want this

There's a self-interested logic worth noting. When users explicitly tell the algorithm what they want, recommendation quality improves without Meta needing to infer intent from sparse behavioural data. Better recommendations mean longer sessions, and longer sessions mean more ad inventory — the commercial flywheel behind every ranking tweak Meta ships.

For advertisers, that cuts both ways. Better-matched users should improve ad relevance, but if organic reach fragments across hyper-personalised feeds, paid amplification becomes comparatively more attractive for guaranteeing distribution.

What to watch next

No budget decisions need revising yet — this is a directional signal, not a policy change with dates attached. Watch for Meta's official announcement, a test cohort in a specific market, or an app-code leak with concrete UI strings. Each of those would turn intent into something you can plan around.

By Marcus Bennett