The leadership that TikTok continues to gain, forces Instagram to develop better mechanisms that allow it to continue to fight for the consumption of its functions among the youngest. That is why the Facebook-owned application is constantly changing its functions to optimize navigation processes. Part of these new changes will consist of the search bar.
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, reported that Instagram plans to feature photos and videos more prominently in search results in the future.
Details of Instagram’s new search feature
Mosseri writes that searching with a term like “space” will show suggested photo and video results alongside traditional accounts and hashtags, encouraging further exploration.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CTApmKfgD6-/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=c2b585dd-7b29-4a60-8e02-1e275c69974e
The search is designed to help you find accounts and topics of interest. “It’s different from Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore because your input helps us figure out what to show you. Your search tells us what you’re looking for, and you notice when the results aren’t helpful,” the platform states.
The most important signals Instagram uses, in order of importance according to him are:
- Your text in search: The text you enter in the search bar is by far the most important signal for Search. We try to match what you type with relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags, and locations.
- Your activity: this includes accounts you follow, posts you’ve seen, and how you’ve interacted with accounts in the past. We generally show accounts and hashtags you follow or visit higher than those you don’t.
- Information about search results: When there are many potential results, we also look at popularity signals. These include the number of clicks, likes, shares and follows for a particular account, hashtag, or location.
