Technology and Science27 June, 20263 min read
TikTok Lets Users Customize Recommendations With Content Preferences And Subject Controls
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Instagram's Your Algorithm lets users specify topics they want more or less. Expansion and testing introduce new ways to customize feeds.
TikTok feed controls
TikTok, built on algorithmic recommendations and known for the relevance of its choices in the feed Pour Toi, offers options to filter non-pertinent content so users can shape what appears in their recommendations. In the section Préférences de contenu, TikTok’s feature Gérer les sujets lets users select the themes the algorithm will highlight more in the Pour Toi feed, accessible via the menu à trois points on a profile through Paramètres et confidentialité. The article says that on a series of about a dozen predefined categories, users can move a slider to the right to see more content tied to a category and to the left to evict most of it, but that the change does not generate immediate effects and typically takes a few days.
“TikTok propose, sans grande surprise, plusieurs options pour filtrer les contenus non-pertinents.”
BDMFor faster results, TikTok also offers Actualiser ton fil d’actualité, where for a few minutes the platform shows videos the user does not usually see and asks them to like, share, comment, or watch fully to generate signals about preferences. Within Préférences de contenu, TikTok also includes options to put accounts in sourdine, filter certain keywords, and activate Mode restreint, which limits automatically “le contenu adapté à certains publics,” as well as a long-press action to mark content as Pas intéressé.
BDMInstagram resets and limits
Instagram’s algorithm controls are described as having expanded beyond earlier “strict minimum” options, including the ability to reset personalized recommendations so the feed starts from scratch. The article says resetting the algorithm “does not affect our follows or our ad preferences,” and that Instagram “gives us the option to rebuild it based on our recommendations and interactions.” It also stresses that the action “cannot be undone,” and that the app begins learning new interests through future interactions but “it is not instantaneous,” with a difference that “may take a few days or weeks.”
To teach the rebuilt recommendations, the article advises interacting naturally by liking, commenting, and saving posts that genuinely interest the user, and it says watch time matters because “Watch time helps the algorithm understand our interests.” For content that does not interest the user, it instructs tapping the three dots and selecting Not interested, while also noting that Instagram’s algorithm constantly analyzes interactions to personalize content as tastes change.
FrancoischarronYour Algorithm and access
Instagram’s Your Algorithm is presented as a feature that lets users adjust what appears in the Reels tab more directly, with the change announced by Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO. The article says Your Algorithm integrates into the Reels tab and offers tools to add or remove topics from settings, choosing from categories suggested by Meta’s artificial intelligence, with the system based on recent activity like likes, comments, and viewing time. It also describes a limit on control: while users can indicate topics they want to see less of, “it is not possible to reduce or remove ads in the Reels feed,” and attempts to add ads as a category trigger an error message.
TechCrunch reports that Mosseri is testing more ways to access Your Algorithm, including pulling down in the feed to bring up the menu, swiping up from a Reel for a similar prompt, and buttons beneath each Reel to indicate whether users want to see more. In Mosseri’s framing, TechCrunch quotes him saying, “We want to evolve Your Algorithm from a setting to something that feels central to your experience on Instagram,” and adds that “Some of this is testing now, some is coming soon, some might not work.”
