The more users use Instagram, and the more people they follow, the longer their News Feed will become.
For all this time, Instagram is long known to show users a “You’re All Caught Up” message to tell them that they've reached the end of their Feed. Seeing the message means that the users have seen every post over the past two days from people they've followed.
The Feed simply comes to a halt.
To keep users glued to their screen, Instagram is expanding the Feed with the launch of 'Suggested Posts', which will be triggered only when users reach the end of their Feed.
Suggested Posts are essentially posts come from accounts that users don’t follow, which Instagram shows as suggestions based on what the users have followed and from posts similar to the ones the users have liked or saved.
With the feature, users have the option to keep on scrolling past the usual marker for more content.
On a dedicated Help page, Instagram wrote that:
"You can also tap View Older Posts to see previous posts from accounts you follow. Note that you won’t be able to hide Suggested Posts."Suggested Posts however won't show the same content on the Explore section of Instagram.
While Suggested Posts on the Feed show posts that are related to the content users already follow, the posts on the Explore section of Instagram are those that point users toward adjacent content. That according to Julian Gutman, head of product at Instagram Home.
In an example, Gutman said that he followed accounts with space as the content, in which he engage regularly. A Suggested Post on his Feed might be a new space photo from someone he doesn't follow, whereas his Explore page might show content related to physics.
Initially, Suggested Posts that is a server-side update will only show photos and videos posted to the grid, and no IGTV or Reels content.
By introducing Suggested Posts, Instagram is like moving away from its stance on screen time, which was first showcased in 2018.
Instagram's former CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom said that Instagram has users’ mental health in mind. He said at the time that the company was working on "tools that will help the Instagram community know more about the time they spent on Instagram."
Systrom said that "any time" spent on the platform "should be positive and intentional."
At the time, the feature was part of a larger movement in the tech industry that questioned if social apps had been built to become too addictive, which could have negative consequences on users’ mental health.
But the Suggested Posts here, could easily keep people use Instagram longer that their original intention.
Gutman however, said that the feature isn't actually designed to keep users glued to their phones.
"I think for us this really came from a vision a couple years ago around people really seeing feed as a place for their interests, and with the improvement in machine learning and our ability to kind of make it easier for you to see some more of those posts that are on Instagram every day, and really bring that personalized relevance to you," said Gutman.
"So we just want to make it really easy for people to see that [relevant content] when they get to the end of their feed. That’s really the motivation here, make it easier for you to go deeper on your interest."
While the feature took cues from the endless Feed TikTok is already having, Instagram knows that with Suggested Posts, it's also benefiting from a new surface where it can display ads that will appear alongside the suggested content from accounts users don’t follow, but Instagram thinks you might like.