According to TechCrunch, Instagram will begin a test that recommends posts from accounts you don’t follow within your regular feed over those from people you already follow, but have a relatively small number of users. If you don’t want to see this feature, the social network will let users remove the feature from their feeds for 30 days. Instagram is asking testers to provide feedback when a Suggested Post does not interest them in a bid to fine-tune its algorithm. Suggested Posts initially rolled out on Instagram last year, and currently appear only after you’ve gone through all your feed’s content and see the “You’re all caught up” message. Adding the feature as a mainstay in your feed would theoretically keep you scrolling, instead of exiting the app for lack of content. Users who now follow a lot of accounts may rarely, if ever, see the Suggested Posts pop up, but the possible new algorithm would automatically add these types of posts in with the rest of your feed, no matter how many accounts you follow. While this new change is only a test, Instagram has been known to make its tests permanent features. Instagram tested hiding the like count on posts for years and just last month announced that all users could hide like counts if they chose. Instagram also in January started testing removing the ability to share feed posts in your stories, but it seems most people are hoping that doesn’t become a permanent feature. Experts say disabling the feature would be a bad idea, especially for small businesses that cannot afford other forms of advertising or sharing important information about certain topics.
