Want Your Old-School Instagram Feed Back? Try This Algorithm Reset Hack
Here's how to see more posts from the people you actually follow.
Published on Sep 16, 2026
Ever feel like these days, whenever you open Instagram you're served the same old content on repeat? Watch a single video about one-pot veggie recipes or double-tap a post on IKEA wardrobe hacks, and suddenly your entire feed is flooded with similar posts—many of them from people you don't even follow. I mean, yeah sure it's good to see more of what you're interested in but the balance seems to have tipped a little too far, and it feels like being trapped in a social media echo chamber.
And as for seeing what your actual IRL friends are up to, as you did circa 2016? Forget it. They don't even go here anymore, or so Meta would have you believe! Yep, Instagram's algorithm can quickly become an offensively monotonous blend of recommended posts and accounts you have no recollection of following, all pushing the same theme. Where's the experimentation? The joy of stumbling across something unexpected? Or, as we said, just straight up seeing what your pals are doing?
Thankfully, it turns out there is a way to give your suggested content a refresh: Instagram has a built-in tool that allows you to reset the recommendations appearing across your feed, Explore page and Reels.
Alas, it won't magically transport you back to the app's early glory days where your feed was just shots of your friends' lattes, blurry selfies and "hot dogs or legs?" quips (oh, the nostalgia), but it should definitely help diversify what you see—and may even bring some long-forgotten accounts back into view. At least, it did for me.
Open Instagram and tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
Tap the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner to open the menu.
Scroll down to the "What you see" section, then select "Content Preferences."
Tap "Reset suggested content."
Instagram will give you the option to review the accounts you follow and your advert preferences, then once you're ready to progress, tap "next."
Tap "Reset suggested content"again (y'know, just to really lock in your decision).
Instagram will then begin rebuilding your recommendations based on the content and accounts you interact with going forward, so if you want to see more of your friends, make sure you're dropping comments on their stuff and liking their vids until the cows come home.
Equally, if you're totally done with seeing videos about air fryers, avoid liking, saving or watching them to the end. The algorithm is always learning from what you do on the app...
This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com/uk. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.