Last month, Instagram introduced a new set of controls that allow users to personalize the topics recommended by the Reels algorithm. Now, Meta is making that feature available to all English users of the app globally, along with the ability to highlight their top topics for the year ahead.
The feature starts with a selection of topics Meta’s AI thinks you’re interested in, based on your recent activity, and controls to remove them or add new categories. There’s also a separate field to identify what you’d like to see less of, and a new “Create your own 2026 algorithm” that allows you to highlight three topics in particular.
I don’t have 2026-specific controls yet, but I was able to make changes to some of my favorite themes and was surprised by how quickly the algorithm adjusted. I added “Snowboarding” as a topic and then later, when I clicked on Reels, the first clip I saw was tagged “Snowboarding.” Unfortunately, the video wasn’t actually about snowboarding – it featured a clip of a freestyle skiing event – so Meta’s systems may still need a little work in classifying the actual content. But given how sensitive the Reels algorithm can be, it’s nice to have a way to pick out interests, even if you’ve gone down the rabbit hole for a while.
However, this feature won’t let you ask to see fewer ads. I tried to add “Ads” to my “What you want to see less of” list and received an error. “No results found. Try another topic or interest.” I was able to successfully add “Sponsored Content” and “AI” to my “See Less” list, although I’m pretty sure the latter will impact videos about AI rather than videos made with the help of AI.
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