Getty Instagram logo displayed on a tablet
Social media platform Instagram has just rolled out a new feature, “Suggested Posts,” which is designed to keep people scrolling through the app even longer than before. The suggested posts feature will appear at the bottom of your news feed once you’ve scrolled through all the updates from accounts your follow.
In the past, you’d see a message saying “You’re all caught up!” and you could have a look at older posts. Instead, after that message, Instagram will now show the user suggested posts from other accounts and ads, similar to the ones you follow and the posts you like.
The feature has been added to everyone’s account by default, but it appears that many are missing the old format as searches to disable the feature have been trending. Unfortunately for those users, it is not possible to turn off the suggested posts feature on Instagram for the time being.
Instagram Has Not Made the New Feature Optional, But There Are Ways to Manage It
According to Instagram’s user guide, “you won’t be able to hide Suggested Posts.” The option to hide or disable the posts appears to be here to stay unless suggested posts receive heavy criticism from a majority of users, in which case Instagram might consider rolling it back.
The app has made the feature adaptable, however, so you can let the platform know if you’re interested or not in a suggested post by tapping the three dots above the post and choosing “Not Interested.” It will affect the future suggested posts on your news feed. When you’re all caught up on your new posts, you can also choose “View Older Posts” to see older posts from the accounts you follow, as you could before.
Instagram’s director of product, Robby Stein, explained the new feature: “Our goal is to make it clear when you’re all caught up so you can decide how you want to best use your time. We see people continuing to seek out more posts they’re interested in after catching up with their feeds, so we wanted to learn from that and make it easier to go a little deeper for those who choose to do so.”
Heavy reached out to Instagram for more information about the feature and whether they will add an option to disable it in the future. A spokesperson confirmed there is no way to disable the feature but explained that suggested posts are “shown to you only after the ‘You’re All Caught Up’ message indicating you’re caught up with your feed. You can opt to view the suggested posts or view older posts from your feed.” The spokesperson did not indicate whether the company would be looking into an option to disable the feature.
Many People Criticized the New Feature on Social Media & Asked How to Turn It Off
Twitter was flooded with comments from Instagram users after the new feature roll-out, with many people asking how to disable the feature. One user posted: “What have Instagram done to their app? I don’t want suggested posts on my home page from people I don’t follow… That’s what the discover tab is for. Completely unnecessary update that no one actually wants.”
Another said, “.@instagram forcing suggested posts onto my home feed then shoving my actual feed into an ‘older posts’ tab?? you already run ads every 4 posts & don’t update based on a timeline so i miss a lot of content that i WANT to see. keep your explore page to yourself. leave me alone.”
Dear @instagram – how do I turn off “Suggested posts”? You’re KILLING me with this. 2020 hasn’t sucked enough? I just want to see my feed. I’m following what I WANT to follow. Contrary to popular belief, I’m capable of making perfectly acceptable life choices. Regards, Me.
One user asked, “Dear @instagram how do I turn this awful suggested posts nonsense off, I don’t want it, I’m more than capable of searching for things if I want to.” While another said, “Can we turn of suggested posts on Instagram pls.”
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