After first launching it in early testing with a limited number of users back in October, Meta has today announced that all U.S. users will now be able to access its “Your Algorithm” manual control option, which will give people another way to define their own Reels experience.
As you can see in this overview, now, users will be able to tap on the control icon at the top right of their Reels feed to view this new “Your Algorithm” overview of topics.
From here, you’ll be able to add and remove topics of interest, while tapping on any interest will also give you examples of the types of videos that fit into that category.
That’ll give you more direct control over your Reels experience, and ensure that your Reels recommendations are less defined by Meta’s AI systems.
As explained by Meta’s Chris Cox:
“We’re launching the ‘your algorithm’ tool on Reels today in the U.S. and will roll out soon to all English-speaking users — a big step towards a more controllable experience. We’ve done a bunch of work on the tech under the hood and we will continue to refine these tools, but already it’s quite powerful to steer your recommendations towards your specific interests.”
Which is good, it sounds good, and it will provide users with the assurance that they can control their Reels experience, if they choose.
Though that also poses a risk for Meta, because Meta knows that AI-powered recommendations are driving a lot more activity in its apps, and keeping more people scrolling through Reels for longer each day.
As such, enabling them to manually interfere with this could have negative impacts for engagement.
But then again…
A key benefit for Meta here is assurance, in providing an optional process for users to manually edit and update their settings, if they so choose. But Meta also knows that, historically, even when users have such options at their disposal, they don’t really use them.
We’ve seen this time and time again, from security changes, to data protections, to algorithm controls and feed preferences. People want these as options, so that they can feel more in control of their experience, but for the most part, they act more as a reassurance, based on their existence, not as a real control and manual input option.
Most users, especially these days, just want to log on and start scrolling, with the system showing them more of what they’re interested in. And as such, while there’s a demand for manual controls, in reality, few people are actually going to enact them, so the risk, I guess, is relatively small for Meta in this respect.
Though it will be interesting to see if people do take these up, and start manually refining their Reels feed based on these options.
Either way, it’s another consideration, and it could be worth experimenting with the settings to see how it changes your Reels experience.
Note: Instagram says that you'll also be able to share your algorithm interests to your Story, "so friends and followers can see what you’re into.” So there's also that.
