SHAPING WHAT’S NEXT IN MEDIA

Last chance to save on Digiday Publishing Summit passes is February 9

SECURE YOUR SEAT

Instagram’s algorithm is now live

Instagram’s algorithm apocalypse is upon us.

The photo-sharing app confirmed that it’s rolling out the new feed to all users beginning today, three months after Instagram first announced the move.

Instagram’s algorithm mirrors that of its owner, Facebook, in that posts are being presented in the order of “likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting, and the timeliness of the post.” Instagram said the change is because people miss as much as 70 percent of pictures from account they follow under the chronological format.

“Over the past few months, we brought this new way of ordering posts to a portion of the community, and we found that people are liking photos more, commenting more and generally engaging with the community in a more active way,” Instagram explained in a blog post.

The change will likely ignite some panic amongst brands since companies that see low engagement won’t be pushed to the top. Lucky for them, however, Instagram debuted tools this week that lets small companies pay the app to have their posts boosted to the top. Sexy brands, like fitness, food and beauty that garner tons of engagement should be fine.

Not everyone is seeing the changes immediately. Those who are seeing it don’t always like it:

More in Media

The Rundown: What YouTube creators should expect to change in 2026

YouTube has big changes slated for 2026 across AI content, Shorts, YouTube TV, and more – what does it all mean for creators?

Q&A: Nikhil Kolar, vp Microsoft AI scales its ‘click-to-sign’ publisher AI content marketplace

What started with a limited group of publishers and Copilot as the first customer is now evolving into a more scalable model, with Microsoft testing how pricing, access and compensation might work as usage grows. 

A running list of publisher lawsuits targeting Google’s ad tech practices

Digiday has compiled a running list of publishers’ lawsuits against Google for its ad tech practices, seeking compensation for claimed lost revenue.