Gadgetory

a lot of us have some wild ideas about how Instagram works and it's probably because we're confused why the apps arranged a certain way it's like why is one person in my feed first versus someone else or more crucially why is my crush always at the top of my story viewers is it because they're stocking my page here's what I know Instagram has 1 billion users including myself and the app hasn't been severe forthcoming about how its algorithm works the company treats it like it's the coca-cola recipe or something even a New York Times article mentioned the stalker idea so how does Instagram rank people in stories and in the app in general does it actually show me the people who stalk me the most we went to Instagram to find out that's Julian Guttman product lead for Instagram home which includes Instagram stories and the feed first things first let's address this document so the answer is people that show up on that list are not the people that stalk you the most it's actually based on your activity and the people that you're closest to all right you heard that Instagram isn't going to show you who's stalking you the most instead it's the people you're interacting with so if you go to your crush's page or even your frenemies page all the time it's likely they're going to show up at the top of your story viewers I think they're off in these kind of situations where there are a lot of confounding factors but you can kind of create a narrative around it maybe based on what what what you want to think or sort of what's interesting do you have it's totally possible that I'm projecting a narrative on to my story viewers because I'm actually the one stalking them although I have to say I don't think I'm creeping that much so what else am i doing in the app that makes Instagram think I care about these people do you visit their profile do you like their feet post and comment on their feet posts do to view their stories but Julien wouldn't get specific about how certain interactions are weighted in the app like whether alike is less significant than a DM or a comment or what happens if a DM is open but not responded to how does that affect the algorithm even what you do outside the app can affect your feed like who you're connected to on instagrams parent company Facebook even still I sometimes have random people in my story of viewers list that I barely know do you check the list multiple times if you check the list multiple times it tries to show you a new set of people so trying to give you new information every time you check the list so if you're like me and you check your story multiple times after you first post it you're probably going to see new people at the top of your viewers because Instagram always want to have a new experience when you open the app this whole strategy around showing the relevant interesting content led the company to change its feed from chronological to algorithmic when this happened in 2016 Instagram said people were missing 70% of posts in their feed so it wanted to optimize the 30% they did see Facebook's feed works the same way the algorithms everywhere when that switch happened two years ago it was super controversial but I actually liked it the feed works is as opposed - most of the time my best friends post populate at the top of my feed although because Instagram always wants to show me new content it sometimes refreshes too quickly and I don't have a chance to scroll okay so I'm starting to understand why I see certain people in certain places on the app even though Julien wouldn't get super granular he's gardening that algorithm ultimately it comes down to self-control everything we do on the app molds the algorithm so maybe I shouldn't look at my random tinder dates profile I'd rather have my best friends the top of my feed resist the boy click if I were to guess why this myth exists it's probably because deep down we know that who we look at in stock on Instagram says a lot about our priorities and interests I don't want to admit that I look at my ex's profile but Instagram knows all our secrets our interactions don't lie I just hope the app never actually exposes my stalking habits hey thanks for watching if you haven't subscribed to the verge yet you should do that and then you should go check out our sister site eater they published a series called the kitchen gadget test show which involves testing gadgets in the kitchen what could be better