Instagram testing features to give users more control on what they see on their feed

Instagram has announced that it is testing the platform’s ability to mark multiple posts in ‘Explore’ as ‘Not Interested’. Furthermore, it is also trying out its ability to filter out suggested posts with certain words to improve user experience.

Through a blogpost, Instagram stated, “Today, we’re announcing that we’re testing two new ways to help you shape your Instagram experience. And we’re sharing a list of controls and methods that you can use to see more of what you want on your Instagram Feed.”

“We’re testing the ability to mark multiple posts in Explore as Not Interested. We’ll immediately hide those posts and refrain from showing you similar content in the future,” it added.  

Further, the platform also pointed out that it would soon begin testing another feature wherein it will filter out content that doesn’t seem to be interesting to the user.

In the blogpost, Instagram stated, “We’ll also soon start testing the ability to tell Instagram you don’t want to see suggested posts with certain words, phrases or emojis in the caption or hashtags.”

The social media platform also went on to add that the usage of this feature would not be limited to the content that is not relevant, but will also encompass the previous patterns of consuming content and will take care of the content that the user once liked and has moved on from.

So as to improve the user experience on the platform, Instagram also pointed out a few tips to see more content of one’s liking. It suggested users make use of the ‘Favourites and Following’ section to see the posts more often and to see a dedicated feed of the favourites just to catch up on their posts.

Furthermore, it also highlighted the usage of the ‘Not Interested Control’ to remove unwanted posts from the feed and see fewer posts of the same content type by tapping on ‘Not Interested’.

Instagram also asserted on its feature to ‘Snooze Suggested Posts’, which can come handy if the user wants to take a break from suggested posts.

On a concluding note, Instagram reiterated its ‘Community Guidelines’ and said that users can adjust the Sensitive Content Control to see more or less of some types of sensitive content.