2023-06-01 15:51:05
The social network Instagram explained how its recommendation system works and has stressed that each app tab (Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels and Search) uses its own algorithm to personalize the experience.
The company shared the details about this procedure with the aim of promoting transparency in its operation and so that both users and creators have control of their experience on the social network.
First of all, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said that the platform works with a variety of algorithms, classifiers, and processesand that each one has its own purpose, so that it “adapts to how people use it”.
“People tend to find their closest friends in Stories, use Explore to discover new content and creators, and stay entertained in Reels,” said the executive.
Mosseri indicated that to serve content in the Feed, consider recent posts shared by people the users followas well as those of profiles that they still do not follow and that they consider might be of interest to them.
To define the interests of users, a series of factors are taken into account, such as the content or accounts they have followed, liked or with whom they have interacted.
Besides, Instagram takes into account the format that they like the most. That way, if someone regularly ‘likes’ photos, the platform will primarily recommend this type of content.
Therefore, among the so-called ‘signals’ that the social network takes into account to recommend content are, on the one hand, user activity (liked, shared or saved content) and interaction history with other userswhen it is noted whether or not others’ publications have been commented on.
Once this analysis is done, the platform makes a set of “informed guesses about how likely users are to interact with a post in different ways,” according to Mosseri.
These are the chances that a post will be spent a few seconds, commented on, liked and shared by this user, and clicked on that other user’s profile picture.
These predictions vary as these interactions occur. and over time, so that the platform can improve the publications it recommends.
Stories, Explore and Reels
for the stories, Instagram values signals such as the frequency with which a user views the stories of a certain profilehow you interact with them (with a comment, a ‘like’ or a direct message) and the degree of relationship they have with the author, that is, the probability that they connect as friends or family.
The Explore section is governed by similar parameters, since Instagram first defines the set of publications that may be liked by users based on their past activity, the publications that they have liked, saved, shared or commented on. past.
Once this information is collected, The social network is responsible for notifying a series of aspectssuch as information about a certain post, such as how quickly people like it or the number of times it is saved and shared.
With this, the platform has insisted that it tries to show content similar to the original publications with which users interacted and that most of the content seen in this tab comes from accounts that users do not follow.
Nevertheless, this dynamic changes when the social network detects content that violates the community guidelines. “Our goal is not to recommend things like content that shows violence, like fighting, or content that showcases certain regulated products, like tobacco or drugs,” the CEO added.
For Reels, like Explore, the platform mainly chooses content from accounts that users don’t follow, going through a process of gathering information very similar to that of this other tab.
First, it finds Reels that it thinks users might like, and then it sorts them based on how interesting it thinks they might be to users. Also, to find the most entertaining Reels, survey users to determine if a Reel is worthwhile or entertaining, before collecting signals such as interaction history with the accounts they were posted from.
Finally, Instagram has qualified that its objective is to reduce the visibility of low-resolution or watermarked Reelsthat contain text mainly, political themes or that have already been published on the social network.
new controls
The company also reported that it is testing a new system so that users can say what they want to see more, with buttons like ‘I’m interested’ and ‘I’m not interested’. They will also be able to proactively hide suggested posts with captions that contain words or phrases they don’t want to see.
Also, the social network said that Sensitive Content Control can be adjusted to allow users to decide if they want to see more or less of certain types of content confidential of accounts that do not follow. This section, on the other hand, is not available to persons under 18 years of age.
#Instagram #revealed #platforms #algorithm #works