Instagram Reveals How It Suggests New Content For Your Feed

Instagram has given a rare insight into the role artificial intelligence plays in selecting posts that users see in their feed.

The platform launched suggested posts in August 2020, with the aim to mirror how users discovered new content naturally.

Instagram’s engineering team says that the app’s post recommendations fall into two categories: “Connected” and “Unconnected.”

In the ‘connected’ system, Instagram’s AI finds and highlights recommended posts based on the user’s interests. 

In contrast, the ‘unconnected’ system is based on a user’s activity, such as liking and following posts.

Find out more here.


Is In-Stream Shopping Already Over Before It’s Really Began?

Social media giants had hoped the advent of in-stream shopping would be a significant revenue generator for them.

But it seems users have other ideas.

While in-stream commerce has grown to be the largest source of revenue for the Chinese version of TikTok (Douyin), in Europe and America it is struggling to gain a foothold.

The lack of engagement has prompted Meta to reveal that it is abandoning its live commerce function on Facebook as well as its affiliate product tagging feature on Instagram.

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Meta To Test End-to-End Encryption on Messenger

In the coming weeks, Meta will test new end-to-end encryption features on its Messenger app, the social media giant has revealed. 

The increased level of privacy mirrors Whatsapp, which is owned by Meta.

It means that only the sender and recipient of a message can have access to it, with even Meta unable to view it.

Some app users will have end-to-end encryption enabled by default for their communications, and they will also be able to save encrypted backups of their chats.

The updated security measures will be tested across a limited number of Instagram and Facebook accounts.

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