Followers and Likes Are Not Enough. Instagram’s Algorithm Favors Your Reach

We recently reported that Instagram would be focusing on content shared through messages. Last week, Instagram officially announced changes to its metrics and priorities.

Instagram’s new approach is based on the belief that reach is a more accurate measure of a creator’s success on the platform. As part of this change, Instagram announced that views will be the primary metric across all content formats, including reels, live videos, photos, carousels, and stories. This unified metric aims to provide a clearer and more consistent understanding of content performance.

Views will replace various other metrics in the Insights section, such as plays, account reach, account engagement, interactions, and watch time. Additionally, repeated content views will be counted similarly to plays and replays for Reels, potentially increasing overall view counts and helping to capture engagement.

Reels Plays will be renamed to Views. Views will become the main metric for other formats such as photos, carousels, and stories.

The End of Fake Followers?

This trend is driven by changes in user behavior and the influence of algorithms. Currently, more than half of the posts shown from profiles a user doesn’t follow are recommended by AI. This reduces the significance of follower count, as content that interests users is increasingly determined by algorithms rather than their own selection of profiles to follow.

Users are also changing how they interact with content – relying more on algorithmic feeds to discover new posts and sharing content through direct messages instead of liking it. As a result, the Send metric is becoming more important, as explained by Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

The change reflects a growing trend of private content sharing over public engagement.

For creators, this means focusing on maximizing reach and views is essential. While traditional metrics like follower counts and likes still have their place, they are no longer the primary indicators of success. Instead, creators must adapt to the shift that emphasizes increasing their content’s reach and encouraging more views.