How To Turn Instagram Reels Suggestions Off

When you’re cruising through your feed on Instagram, checking out what your friends are eating for dinner, who from college is getting engaged, and what celebrities are being mysteriously vague about their relationship status, it can be an unwelcome interruption to be served suggestions for Reels and accounts to follow. Unless the suggestions are particularly on-brand for you — say, you’ve recently taken up crochet, and the DIY chunky blanket content you’re being served is really hitting the spot — suggestions can make your feed feel cluttered and well, not like your own. To wit: Just because you liked a post from your best from college’s best friend from home doesn’t mean you want to follow their dog’s account. The social media platform doesn’t make it obvious, but there’s actually an easy way to turn off suggestions on Instagram, which will hide account, posts, and Reels suggestions from your feed.

Though the suggestion mute function is not permanent — it only lasts for 30 days — it will give you a break from being bombarded with the app’s interpretation of your interests, which are not always spot-on. Blocking suggestions helps to make Instagram feel a bit more intimate, especially if you prefer a more personal experience when you log on.

Ready to take a break from your friend’s friend’s dog’s Reels? Here’s how to disable pesky suggestions on Instagram.

Scroll through your feed until you find a suggested post that’s not from an account you follow. It will say “Because you like a post from @RandomAccount123,” and below it will be the suggested video that Instagram thinks you want to see. Tell Instagram you don’t want to see it by tapping the three dots in the upper right corner, and then tapping, “Not interested.” Next, tap the clock icon to snooze all suggested posts in your feed for 30 days. If you change your mind and decide that maybe your friend’s friend’s dog is actually kind of entertaining and you don’t mind see the occasional suggestion, you can just tap Undo. You’ll know when the snooze has ended because you’ll start to see suggested posts again in your feed.

If you don’t mind seeing suggested Reels or posts, but wish they were a bit more fine-tuned, you can tap Not Interested, or tap the X above the post when you see it in your feed. This will help teach Instagram’s algorithm that the suggestion was a bust. If you want to be more proactive about managing your interests, you can do so more directly by tapping the three dots above a suggested post that you do like, and then tapping Manage Interests. Next, tap Interested to pull down a list of topics the app thinks you’re interested in. You can edit this list by adding and removing topics to increase the chances of getting a Reels suggestion that you’re excited to see.