Instagram head Adam Mosseri has released a series of videos on his personal profile aimed at explaining how the platform’s ranking system works, partly in response to growing scrutiny over algorithmic influence on content trends, including new regulatory efforts in Australia. The videos also serve as a guide for creators hoping to fine-tune their posting strategy.
Why Instagram Ranks Content
Mosseri explained that without algorithmic sorting, the feed would be dominated by high-frequency posters, since brands and businesses typically publish far more often than individual creators. This would reduce the overall variety of content users see and shrink average reach for creators. Rankings are instead generated through predictive modeling of user behavior, such as the likelihood of watching or sharing a post, with recency playing a major role in keeping the feed close to chronological order.
The Four Principles Behind Ranking
According to Mosseri, four core principles guide Instagram’s algorithm: prioritizing original content over reposts, favoring recently published posts, surfacing content from smaller creators to non-followers to gauge engagement and support new voices, and continuously expanding its AI models to weigh a broader set of signals.
Mosseri also pointed out that users can shape their own feeds using tools like the favorites list, the “Not interested” option, and the Your Algorithm feature, which lets people adjust the interests attributed to them.
For creators, his advice centers on experimentation — testing different formats and posting consistently, since content trends shift quickly — while balancing output with the risk of burnout. He emphasized that engagement rate matters more than raw view or like counts when it comes to sustained reach.