Meta used its Q3 2026 earnings report to share fresh engagement data for Instagram, Facebook and Threads, highlighting where the company sees its strongest momentum. The details could help marketers align their strategies with Meta’s priorities.
Instagram Hits New Time-Spent Record
Global time spent per Instagram user reached an all-time high in the third quarter, driven by growth across Reels and Feed. CFO Susan Li said relevance launches lifted Reels time spent by more than 4%, helped by a model that ranks sequences of Reels rather than judging each one alone. Nearly 45% of recommended Reels are now under a day old, up more than 11 percentage points from Q2. That fits Instagram’s push for original content, which included an April update to cut aggregators and copycats from recommendations. Creators should note that most Reels engagement increasingly happens on day one.
Facebook also saw Reels time spent hit a record high, growing by double digits year over year. Meta credits a new generative retrieval architecture, now live globally, which labels content semantically to surface new posts before they gather engagement. It has reached roughly a quarter of unconnected Feed views and half of Reels views, lifting Reels watch time by 1%. Doubling the history considered by the ranking model added another 1% in the US.
Threads and Creator Tools Expand
Mark Zuckerberg said Threads has overtaken X in monthly active users, with more than 500 million people now on the platform. Time spent per user rose over 20% year over year, a sign of expanding opportunities for advertisers.
Meta also confirmed that its Creator Marketing Hub is now open to all advertisers, offering access to more than 10 million creators. The company is integrating its Meta AI Business Assistant so brands can search for creators and plan partnerships conversationally.