Your Algorithm is an Instagram feature that shows you the interest categories the app has inferred from your behavior and lets you edit them directly. You open it from the sliders-and-hearts icon in the top right of the Reels tab or search, see the topics Instagram thinks you want, and add, remove or move them. During a June 2026 Q&A, Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s Head, walked through where to find it and said the team has early ideas for making it a much bigger part of the app.
What shipped and why it matters
Instagram has spent years telling people the algorithm learns from what they watch, like and skip. Your Algorithm turns that into something you can look at. Instead of guessing why your Reels feed is suddenly all woodworking, you can see “woodworking” sitting in your interest list and decide whether it stays. Instagram’s Reels algorithm control announcement framed it as giving people a direct hand in their recommendations, and coverage of the rollout put the first version in late 2025.
For social media managers, that’s a shift in how distribution works. Reels recommendations are no longer a black box on the viewer’s side. Your audience can now see which topic buckets you’re landing in, and they can prune you out.
How to find Your Algorithm
- Open the Reels tab, or tap into search.
- Look for the icon in the top right: a set of sliders with small hearts on them.
- Tap it to open your interest list, grouped into columns by how strongly Instagram weights each topic.
- Add a topic the app missed, remove one you don’t want, or move a topic between columns to change its weight.
Changes apply to what you’re recommended going forward. If the icon isn’t there yet, you’re not in the rollout group; it’s been expanding gradually.
You can see your algorithm and change it
That’s the whole feature in one line, and it’s close to how Mosseri described it: a feature that lets you “actually see your algorithm and then change it.” The interesting part of the June session was what comes next. He said the team has a couple of ideas for evolving it to be more useful and more central to the Instagram experience, that some of those ideas will test soon, and that others haven’t been built yet. He posted a separate note the same day laying out the early thinking.
None of the next steps are confirmed features. What’s confirmed is the direction: Your Algorithm is meant to grow from a settings panel into something people interact with regularly.
Who benefits most
Viewers who feel stuck. If your feed has drifted somewhere you didn’t choose, this is a faster fix than the old advice of liking fifty posts about something else.
Niche creators. Your content gets recommended inside interest categories. Knowing those categories exist, and that viewers can see them, is useful context when you’re deciding what a reel is actually about. A reel that’s half cooking and half travel may be landing in neither bucket cleanly.
Managers running several accounts. Your Algorithm is personal to each login, so your work account’s interest list is a decent read on what the app thinks that account is about. If it doesn’t match the brand, your consumption behavior on that login is skewing it.
What it replaces
Before this, the only levers were indirect: “Not interested” on individual reels, the reset of content suggestions that wipes everything, and muting. Those still exist. Your Algorithm sits between them, more precise than a full reset and less tedious than flagging reels one at a time. It pairs well with post notifications and favorites, which handle the “never miss this account” side, while Your Algorithm handles the “show me more of this topic” side.
It also changes nothing about how long your own reels get recommended. That window still depends on performance, not on viewer settings.
A few things to do with this on your own account:
- Open Your Algorithm on your brand login and read the interest list.
- Note which topics map to your content pillars and which don’t.
- Check whether your last ten reels each sit clearly inside one topic.
If you’re already planning the month by pillar somewhere shared, a planning tool like Kontentino is where that topic check becomes a column next to the dates instead of a note you lose. Start a free account if you want the calendar to hold the pillar, not your memory.
FAQ
What is Your Algorithm on Instagram?
It’s a feature that shows the interest topics Instagram has inferred about you and lets you edit them. You can add, remove or reweight topics to change your Reels recommendations.
How do you find Your Algorithm on Instagram?
Tap the sliders-with-hearts icon in the top right of the Reels tab or search. If you don’t see it, the feature hasn’t reached your account yet.
Does changing Your Algorithm affect reach for creators?
Only indirectly. Viewers who remove a topic will see less content from that topic, including yours. It doesn’t change how Instagram ranks your reels for everyone else.
Is Instagram expanding Your Algorithm?
Yes, that’s the stated plan. In June 2026 Adam Mosseri said the team has ideas for making it more central to the app, some testing soon and some not yet built.
