Instagram allows users to see and control the algorithm, test in the US
CEO Mosseri's announcement: experimentation on a small percentage of US users. Ghost posts arrive on Threads
Instagram is testing in the United States the ability for users to see and control its algorithm, adding and removing topics based on their interests. This was announced by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri in a video posted on the platform, where he shows the feature that this week will allow a small percentage of Americans to have 'control' over the content they see, and explains that it is a tool to 'optimise' the social experience.
"We're launching this feature first on Reels, with plans to extend it to Explore soon," Mosseri writes, and "we're also looking at what a version of this feature might look like on Thread." "We want people to have more control over their experience on Instagram, and we hope this will be a meaningful new way to define what they see," the ceo emphasises, asking users to try out the new feature and let him know what they think.
Reel history
In the past few days, Mosseri had also announced another new feature in a video, borrowed from TikTok, namely the reel history available in the profile activities. Through the settings, each user will be able to find all the reels he or she has already watched and make targeted searches through filters that allow, for example, searching for videos by date or by entering the name of the person or account that posted it.
"Ghost posts" arrive on Threads
The news also concerns the Threads app, the micro blogging platform launched in 2023 by Meta in competition with Elon Musk's X, on which it has been possible for a few days now to publish posts that are automatically archived 24 hours after being uploaded: they are called 'ghost posts' and are very similar to the stories that have long been widely used on Instagram and Facebook.
All replies to ghost posts will be sent to users' inboxes, without allowing other users to see who has liked and replied. "It is possible to share unfiltered thoughts and new ideas without the pressure of permanence or refinement," Meta said. The 400 million active users on Threads (estimate updated in August) can create this type of post by activating or deactivating the ghost icon in the post creation menu: posts will appear as a dashed, grey chat cloud in their feed, to distinguish them from normal posts.
