Mosseri Has Been Busy: What Instagram’s Latest Updates Mean for Brands

Adam Mosseri has been busy.

In the space of a week, Instagram has rolled out new profile features, talked more openly about how its algorithm works, defended recommendation-led feeds, introduced more ways for users to influence what they're recommended and continued to develop AI-powered creation tools.

And amongst all of that came a pretty significant warning for brands.

According to Mosseri, an Instagram without algorithmic ranking wouldn't necessarily give brands more opportunity. In fact, he thinks users would become "overwhelmed" by brand content.

So, what exactly has Instagram been up to this week? And what can marketers learn about the new working ways of Instagram?

Instagram thinks an algorithm-free feed would be full of brands

The biggest conversation this week came from Australia.

The Australian government is proposing that social platforms give users the choice between an algorithmically ranked experience and a reverse-chronological feed made up of accounts they follow.

At the Australian launch of Instagram's Algo Confessions series, Mosseri explained why he believes a world without ranking could actually result in a worse experience.

His reasoning comes down to volume.

Friends tend to post less than creators. Creators tend to post less than brands and businesses.

Without an algorithm deciding which content is most relevant to each person, those with the resources to publish most frequently could dominate the feed.

The result, Mosseri argues, would be more brand content, less visibility for friends and creators and ultimately less time spent on Instagram.

For marketers, that's an interesting admission.

We spend a lot of time talking about algorithms as something brands need to overcome. Instagram is effectively arguing that ranking is also what stops brands from overwhelming the people they're trying to reach.

The lesson? More content doesn't automatically equal more attention.

Instagram is explaining its "black box"

Alongside those comments, Instagram launched the Australian edition of Algo Confessions, a series designed to explain more about how its ranking systems influence what people see across Feed, Stories, Reels, Explore and suggested accounts.

Mosseri acknowledged that Instagram's ranking system can feel like a "black box".

That's something marketers can probably relate to.

But Instagram is increasingly trying to show that there isn't one single mysterious "algorithm". Different ranking systems use different signals depending on where someone is in the app and what they're doing.

More importantly, Instagram is giving users greater influence over those recommendations.

People can already adjust some of the interests and topics informing what they're shown, and Mosseri suggested AI could eventually make this process even more conversational - potentially allowing someone to ask Instagram why they're seeing certain types of content.

That could create an important shift.

We're moving towards an Instagram where audiences don't just passively receive recommendations. They have more opportunities to actively tell the platform what they do and don't want.

For brands, relevance becomes even more important.

Tagged content can now become profile content

It's not all algorithm chat.

Instagram is also rolling out the ability to add posts you've been tagged in directly to your main profile grid.

Previously, tagged content primarily lived within the separate Tagged tab. Now, a creator or brand can choose to make someone else's post part of their main profile without duplicating the upload.

That's particularly interesting for influencer marketing.

A creator could feature a collaboration more prominently on their grid. Brands could give selected UGC or partnership content a more visible role on their profiles. Collaborative campaigns can live more naturally across multiple accounts.

It also means brands should start thinking about tagged content as part of profile strategy, rather than treating it as something sitting quietly in another tab.

For campaign planning, we'd start asking a new question:

Should this collaboration live on the creator's main grid too?

And for community managers, it's worth reviewing tagging permissions, approval processes and what content you're happy to make part of the brand's visible profile identity.

Instagram is getting more serious about AI-generated identities

AI is another area marketers need to keep watching.

Industry reporting this week has continued to highlight Instagram's approach to accounts centred around fully AI-generated people, particularly where the synthetic nature of the identity isn't made clear.

The distinction here is important.

This isn't the same as a creator using AI to edit a video, enhance an image or help write a caption. The concern is accounts presenting a completely AI-generated person in a way that could lead audiences to believe they're interacting with a real human.

For influencer marketers, that adds another layer to creator vetting.

Alongside audience quality, brand fit, previous partnerships and engagement, agencies and brands increasingly need to understand who - or what - is actually behind the profile.

Is it a real creator? A virtual influencer? A hybrid? Is the use of AI clear to audiences?

As synthetic creators become more sophisticated, follower count and surface-level engagement won't be enough to establish authenticity.

Creating content is getting easier too

Instagram is also continuing to develop tools designed to remove some of the friction from content creation.

First Draft uses AI to help assemble an initial video edit, trimming selected clips and removing pauses to give creators a starting point rather than a blank timeline.

Replace Audio, meanwhile, gives users greater flexibility to change music on existing content without deleting the post and starting again.

They might sound like relatively small workflow updates, but they're part of a much bigger change.

The technical barrier to producing competent social content keeps falling.

Creators can edit faster. Brands can produce more. AI can increasingly take care of the first stages of production.

Which makes the strategic idea behind the content even more important.

When everyone can make more, making more isn't the differentiator.

So, what are Instagram's updates actually telling us?

Look at this week's announcements together and there's a bigger story.

Instagram is simultaneously trying to:

• Give users more control over what they're recommended.
• Make its ranking systems easier to understand.
• Maintain algorithmic ranking rather than return to purely chronological feeds.
• Give creators and brands more control over how their profiles look.
• Make content creation quicker and easier.
• Establish clearer expectations around AI-generated identities.

That's a lot of change in a short space of time.

But there is a common thread running through it.

Instagram is becoming easier to create for, but potentially harder to earn attention on.

If audiences have greater control over their recommendations, brands have to work harder to remain relevant to those interests.

If production becomes easier, simply producing more content becomes less of a competitive advantage.

If creators can shape their grids more deliberately, brands need to think about partnerships as part of a creator's wider identity rather than simply securing another placement.

And if Instagram's own boss believes an unranked feed would become overwhelmed with company content, brands should probably resist responding to every reach problem by simply publishing more.

What should brands do now?

First, review your creator vetting process. Identifying virtual influencers, synthetic identities and AI disclosures should increasingly become a standard part of creator selection.

Second, review your tagged-content settings and campaign workflows. Consider whether creator collaborations should be added to main profile grids and agree this during briefing and approvals rather than after the campaign goes live.

Third, experiment with Instagram's new creation tools, but don't mistake production efficiency for strategy. First Draft might help you make a Reel faster. It can't tell you whether the Reel deserves to exist.

And finally, stop thinking about the algorithm as something you need to beat.

Watch time, interactions, relevance, relationships and genuine audience interest matter because Instagram is trying to predict what people actually want to see.

As users gain more control over those recommendations, understanding your audience becomes even more valuable.

The new working ways of Instagram

Mosseri has given marketers a lot to think about this week.

Some of these updates are small product changes. Others point towards much bigger questions about algorithms, AI, creators and how much control people should have over their social feeds.

Together, they're a useful indication of where Instagram is heading.

The platform isn't becoming less algorithmic. It's becoming more transparent, more customisable and more user-controlled, while simultaneously making it easier than ever to create and distribute content.

For brands, that creates a pretty simple challenge.

The tools to make more content are getting better.

The opportunities to publish it are growing.

But audiences are getting more control over whether they actually want to see it.

The tools to make more content are getting better. The opportunities to publish it are growing. But audiences are getting more control over what earns their attention.

That makes understanding what people actually want from brands on social more important than ever.