Instagram is revamping its Reels recommendation algorithm to increase “original content.” This move will have a significant impact on aggregator accounts and other accounts that primarily repost other users’ work. The company is also changing the way it ranks Reels to give smaller accounts more distribution on the app.
In a blog post announcing the changes, the company said it was trying to “fix” its ranking system to make it easier for accounts with smaller followers to expand their reach. “Historically, creators with large followings and aggregators of republished content have received greater referral reach than smaller, original content creators because of the way we ranked content,” the company explains. “We believe it is important to correct this to give all creators a more equal opportunity to reach new audiences.”
It’s unclear how exactly Instagram will optimize its recommendations to make them more “equal,” but the company suggests that the algorithm will no longer prioritize accounts with more followers. “Appropriate content…is shown to a small audience that we think they will enjoy. Regardless of whether they follow the account that posted it, the company says, “As that audience engages with the content, the top-performing Reels are shown to a slightly wider audience, then the best of them are shown to another even larger group and so on.” The change will be rolled out “in the coming months,” so it may be some time before developers see the impact of this update.
However, the app’s changes to “original content” could be much more immediate. Instagram says it will actively replace reposted Reels with the “original” clip in its suggestions when it detects two identical pieces of content. Accounts that share reposted Reels will also be tagged with a label that clearly identifies the original creator. The company says these changes will not apply to creators who make “significant” edits, such as recording voice-overs or reaction clips, or when posts are “significantly edited to become a meme.”
Aggregator accounts that “repeatedly” post others’ posts will be penalized even more harshly. Instagram says it will no longer recommend Reels from these accounts at all if they have posted unoriginal content 10 or more times in the last 30 days. This change could reduce the reach of popular aggregator accounts that share other users’ clips, often to promote affiliate shopping links and other programs.
What’s worth noting is that for now, all of these changes only apply to Reels and not to other types of posts on Instagram (a spokesperson said the company will “evaluate expanding to other formats in the future”). The changes also broadly reflect the fact that Instagram has tried to reduce the importance of follower counts. This has frustrated some YouTubers, who complain that most of their followers don’t see their posts in their feeds.
In recent weeks, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has turned to Threads to field complaints from several YouTubers who have shared their account stats and asked why more of their followers aren’t seeing their posts. In a recent exchange, wildlife photographer Nate Luebbe, who has 142,000 followers on Instagram, pressed Mosseri on why a popular post only reached about 20 percent of his followers. In his response, Mosseri suggested that this is how Instagram’s algorithm is supposed to work.
While these latest changes specifically target Reels, the updates suggest that Meta will continue to focus on other metrics besides follower count. This may be disappointing for those who have built a large audience over several years, but Meta seems to see it as a better way to level the playing field for small accounts.
Instagram updated its algorithm back in 2022 to prioritize original content. Mosseri said at the time that he didn’t want the app to “overvalue aggregators,” although he acknowledged that it was difficult to know “for sure” when a piece of content was original. Whatever changes were made back then, they may not have gone far enough if the company is still trying to “correct” imbalances two years later.