If you are an avid user of Instagram, then you would have come across posts and memes stating that the popular photo-sharing social network is restricting the visibility of posts.
A large number of Instagram users, especially business account holders, have been complaining of late that Instagram has made some tweaks to its algorithm, that limit post visibility. While some users like the above say that their posts reach only 7% of their followers, others say posts are shown only to 15% of their followers.
To counteract this change, Insta users have been posting images with the words above and asking their followers to like or comment on this post, which they believe will increase future post visibility.
Instagram has been quick to point out that it hasn’t specifically made any changes to its algorithm that limits post visibility. Instagram in a series of tweets from its official Twitter handle clarified the issue.
The official statement from Instagram clarifies that there have been no changes to the algorithm powering the Insta feed recently. Instagram acknowledges that what shows up in a user’s feed is personalised. This means, posts don’t appear chronologically but are based on how a particular user engages with his/her feed.
Posts from accounts that you interact – like or comment – regularly appear at the top. Additionally, post order also depends on other factors like how frequently you use Instagram, the timeliness of posts, the number of people you follow and so on.
Instagram states that if you keep scrolling, you can see posts from all user accounts that you are following.
Even after Instagram released this statement, sceptics have been pointing out that the social media network doesn’t deny the “7% view limit” rumour outrightly.
As Instagram clarifies in this thread – what a user sees in his/her feed is highly personalised and depends on several factors.
For instance, let’s assume that you follow 200 user and business accounts on Insta. You regularly comment and like posts from only 20 of these user accounts. Then, every time you log into the Instagram app, you are likely to see posts from these 20 user accounts at the top of your Insta feed.
Let’s assume, that each of these 20 accounts post multiple times a day and average around 2-3 posts per day. And, if you scroll through your feed only for a couple of minutes each time you check the app, then you are likely to see only the posts from your favourite accounts.
That doesn’t mean, the other posts are hidden from you. You can continue scrolling below, to find posts from other accounts that you follow.
As you can see, Instagram doesn’t limit content. Instead, the algorithm works in such a way to show you your preferred posts first so that you keep coming back to the app often.
Social media experts claim that the rumour is not unbiased. However, the fault doesn’t lie with Instagram. For instance, if you have a business profile on Instagram with 100 followers, then only a handful of them are likely to be active followers. Your posts are expected to show up in the feeds of these active followers at the top. Whereas for the rest of your followers, your posts are likely to be buried in the feed deep down.
This is the reason for this rumour asking users to like and comment on the post. Now, with Instagram clarifying that there are no changes to feed ranking recently, users need not worry that the popular photo-sharing site is creating a conspiracy to limit your post views.
