Instagram has officially passed 3 billion monthly active users, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, tripling its base since crossing the 1 billion mark in 2018.
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In a video update, Mosseri credited the surge to DMs, Reels, and recommendations:
“Almost all of our growth has been driven by DMs, Reels, and recommendations,” he explained. “Because of that, we’re going to continue to focus on those products and reorient the app more around them in the coming months.”
That strategy, however, has often frustrated users who want more control over their feeds, particularly those who still prefer photos and content from people they already follow. To address this, Instagram will begin testing new features that let people fine-tune the algorithm behind Reels (and eventually other feeds).
The tool allows users to toggle topics Instagram thinks they care about. For example, if the app keeps pushing college football highlights but you’d rather see less of it, maybe because your team is having a rough season, you can simply remove that topic from your recommendations.
Instagram is also tweaking its navigation bar: the current upload button will be swapped out for a shortcut to DMs, underscoring the platform’s pivot toward messaging as a primary growth driver.
With 3 billion users and rising, Instagram is betting that balancing recommendations with user controls will keep the app both expansive and personal.
