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In early January 2026, Instagram has continued to evolve, not just as a photo app, but as a platform shaping how communities connect, how content is discovered, and how brands build meaningful relationships with audiences. From personalisation controls to support tools, these updates reflect Instagram’s shifting priorities for discovery, safety, and user experience, all with wider implications for social strategies in 2026.
January 29, 2026
Studio
More Personalised Feeds & Algorithm Control
One of the biggest changes rolling out is Instagram’s new “Your Algorithm” feature, an AI-powered tool that lets users see and influence what content appears in their Reels tab.
Users can view the topics the algorithm thinks they’re interested in, and adjust them directly to see more or less of certain content types.
This level of control deepens personalisation and could meaningfully impact reach and engagement patterns for brands and creators alike.
This shift suggests a future where discovery isn’t only driven by machine learning black boxes, users literally shape their own experience. For marketers, this means clarity of positioning and niche relevance will matter more than ever.
Instagram is experimenting with features that encourage more direct, community-first interactions, from resharing public Stories to highlighting stronger friend-centric connections. A friends count may replace the traditional “following” count in some tests, emphasising meaningful connections over vanity metrics.
Together with extended resharing options that expand reach beyond tagged users, brands can begin exploring new formats for community-centric storytelling and engagement.
Security remains a core focus going into 2026. Recent reports sparked concern around suspicious password reset requests affecting millions of users, but Instagram has confirmed there was no breach of its systems, the issue stemmed from a bug that triggered unwanted resets, and it has since been fixed.
Accounts remain secure, but the incident underscores how account protection continues to be a priority.
At the same time, Meta is rolling out a centralized support hub for Facebook and Instagram, making it easier to find account help, report issues, and use AI-powered assistance for recovery and settings management.
For brands managing multiple profiles, this means support paths are getting more robust, which is great for both crisis recovery and everyday troubleshooting.
While not strictly limited to January 2026, Instagram’s content creation ecosystem continues to expand. New tools like Instagram Edits aim to bring advanced video editing, including AI-powered filters, auto subtitles, and background removal, directly into the app.
This enhances the creative toolkit for stories, posts, and Reels and decreases reliance on external editing.
Extended Reels length (up to three minutes) also gives storytellers more space to create deeper narratives, a clear opportunity for brands to experiment with richer formats and more informative storytelling.
Instagram’s sibling app, Threads, continues to evolve in parallel. Beyond simple integration, Threads is improving user control, for example, by expanding “Hidden Words” content filters that allow users to block unwanted terms and emojis, helping shape safer, more personalised conversations on the platform.
For brands and creators active across both Instagram and Threads, this means cross-platform strategies will become even more essential - with nuanced community moderation and topic-driven engagement playing a bigger role in visibility.
Whether you’re a brand building a community or a creator scaling an audience, these changes signal that control, clarity, and engagement will define Instagram in 2026.
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