How to Turn Off Suggested Posts on Instagram

Your Instagram feed used to be all about displaying recent content from the accounts you followed so that you could stay up to date with your interests and friends’ activities, but that changed with a recent update. Now your Instagram feed consists of numerous suggested posts, while content from your followers seems to be frustratingly sparse. Luckily, Instagram still offers a level of control regarding what shows up in your feed. This tutorial shows how to turn off suggested posts on Instagram.

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How Instagram Decides What to Display on Your Feed

Instagram is taking a whole new approach to your feed. Instead of showing you content that you’ve already shown interest in (by following the account), it shifted the focus to discovering. With that in mind, Instagram is now flooding your feed with countless suggested posts, which can be images or Reels.

You may be wondering what they are based on. As the company itself explains, there are various criteria for suggested posts showing up in your feed, including:

• Your activity: Instagram looks at your activity on the app, including the accounts you follow and the posts you’ve liked, saved or commented on.
• Your connections: your history of connecting with certain accounts and similar accounts are also taken into consideration.
• Post popularity: Instagram tends to suggest popular posts from categories you follow and will also look at how others are interacting with that post.
• Account popularity: how many people have interacted with a certain account in the past few weeks is also part of the “suggested” equation.

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How to Turn Off Suggested Posts on Instagram

Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t have a disable button for “suggested posts” that would allow you can turn them off and on at will. However, you do have control over what can appear on your feed. We discuss the alternatives below.

Quickly Get Rid of a Suggested Post

The easiest way to get rid of a suggested post is quickly delete it from view. By doing this, you’ll be removing the post from your feed, but content from the same account may show up later on anyway, although Instagram says it will take into account your preference.

1. Find a suggested post that doesn’t match your criteria on Instagram for mobile (Android | iOS).
2. Find and tap on the “X” in the upper-right corner of the post.

3. The post will immediately be removed from your feed. It’s a solution to quickly clean up your feed without going in too deep.

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Snooze Suggested Posts (for up to 30 days)

If, on the other hand, you want to make sure you’re not going to see more suggested posts from an account or anything similar. You can tell Instagram that you’re not interested in this type of content. There’s also a hidden option to snooze all suggested posts in your feed for 30 days, which may be of greater interest to you.

1. Go to a suggested post on the Instagram mobile app.
2. Instead of pressing “X,” tap on the three dots underneath the “X.”

3. Select “Not interested” from the options that show at the bottom.

4. Instagram will let you know that the post has been hidden.
5. You also get three more options. The first is “Don’t suggest posts from [X account].” Instagram will hopefully take note of your preference going forward and spare you from seeing similar content, but this is not a 100 percent guarantee you won’t see such posts. You may still notice content from that account popping up from time to time.

6. The second option is the most interesting, as it allows you to “Snooze all suggested posts in feed for 30 days.” It’s as good as having a disable button for suggested content. Once 30 days have elapsed, you can repeatedly snooze posts for another 30 days to make sure you eliminate suggested posts for good.
7. The third option is “This post made me uncomfortable” and is akin to a report option.

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Choose a Different Feed View

Another alternative to stop seeing suggested posts is to switch from the default feed view to a custom one. This feature may fly under the radar for many users, as it isn’t really highlighted. Make it happen by following the below step.

1. Open the Instagram app and tap on the large Instagram logo in the upper-left corner of the display.

2. Two options will appear: “Following” and “Favorites.”
3. If you select the first one, you’ll be taken to a curated feed alternative with posts from the people you follow.

4. Similarly, “Favorites” is a feed thcontainingnly posts from people you “favorited.” (Find out how to add an account to your Favorites below.)

Note: you’ll need to switch to a custom feed view every time you open the app, as the option won’t stay selected.

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How to Add Accounts to “Favorites” on Instagram

The following shows how to add an account to your Favorites list.

1. Go to the desired account’s profile.
2. Underneath the account’s description, tap on the “Following” button.

3. Select the “Add to favorites” button.
4. Whenever you come across content from this account on your feed, it will be flagged by a red star.

5. Alternatively, you can go back to your “Favorites” feed as shown above.
6. Tap on the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner.

7. Add more accounts to your “Favorites” list by searching for the username or scrolling up and down the list.

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Block Accounts With Undesirable Content

If you want to make sure certain content doesn’t show up on your feed, you can block the accounts altogether.

1. Go to the account page of the suggested post.
2. Tap on the three dots in the upper-right corner.

3. Select “Block.”
4. Alternatively, you can take the more drastic route and “Report” the post.
5. You can also “Report” a post without visiting the account’s profile. On the suggested post, tap on the three dots in the upper-right corner.

6. Select “Report.”

Also read: How to Create and Use an Instagram Avatar

Browse Instagram on the Web

Another trick to no longer see suggested posts on your Instagram feed is to switch to the Web version of Instagram. Oddly, Instagram has yet to implement this feature on the Web, so you won’t stumble upon annoying suggested posts there – only pictures from your friends and other accounts you follow.

Also read: How to Make a Collage on Instagram

Frequently Asked Questions

After closing and reopening the Instagram app, I still get the “Favorites” feed and can’t seem to exit this view. What can I do?

It’s probably a glitch, so you may want to wait before you try accessing the app again. If you’re on Android, try closing the app again and “kill” it by pressing the “Recents” on-screen button on your phone, then swiping your finger upward to properly close the app. Reopen Instagram and you should be able to see the default feed. Creating a habit of “killing” apps after you’ve used them will also help you conserve your phone’s battery life.

Why do I keep seeing posts from people I follow in my “Favorites” feed?

This is either a glitch, or you have not added enough “Favorite” accounts. Try adding more to see if these additional posts keep showing up.

How do I prevent Instagram from suggesting accounts to me?

Instagram not only suggests posts that you may be interested in but also accounts you may want to add. If you don’t want to see these, go to your profile and tap on the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner. Select “Settings -> Notifications -> Following and followers.” Scroll down until you find the “Account Suggestions” section and turn it off to get rid of suggestions such as “[X account name], who you might know, is on Instagram” and other similar notifications.

Image credit: Freepik. All screenshots by Alexandra Arici.