Instagram now shows posts from accounts you don't follow in your main feed

Throughout December alone, Instagram's made some fairly big updates to its main feed. The middle of the month saw a new option to follow hashtags to keep up to date with trends/topics that you're interested in, and just about a week ago, Instagram started rolling out an in-line comment feature to make it even faster to leave your thoughts on photos/videos.

Now, Instagram is launching a new "Recommended for You" section in your main feed that shows posts from accounts you don't follow that it thinks you'll like. Instagram has made sure this section of posts looks different from regular accounts/hashtags you follow, and TechCrunch says Recommended for You shows between three and five posts at a time.

Instagram's been showing recommended content in the Explore tab for a while now, but this is the first time we've seen the social network push these recommendations into the main feed. You can't permanently remove the recommended posts, but tapping on the three dots and then the "Hide" option will make these disappear until you've gone through all of the new ones from who you're actually following.

It's good that Instagram isn't completely forcing this new feature down users' throats, but we can't imagine this is a change that'll be welcomed with open arms. What are your thoughts on all of this?

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Joe Maring

Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You can reach him on Twitter at @JoeMaring1.