For years, social media giants controlled what users saw in their feeds. While people could follow accounts, like posts, or hide content they didn’t like, recommendation algorithms controlled what was shown to them.
Now, social platforms are surrendering some of their power by allowing users to personalize their algorithms with the help of artificial intelligence.
Beyond the traditional “I’m not interested” buttons, apps like Threads, Instagram and TikTok have started to introduce tools that allow people to train their own algorithms and influence what appears in their feeds.
The change reflects an evolution in how recommendation systems work. Social media streams are moving away from a one-size-fits-all TV channel and toward something more like a streaming service, where users can tailor recommendations to their interests and have more control over what they watch.
For users, the benefit of adaptive algorithms is a stream tailored to their interests. For social media giants, it’s a way to boost engagement by displaying content that people are more likely to consume.
Here’s a look at how social media platforms are giving users more control over their recommendation algorithms.
Threads
On June 16, 2026, Threads introduced a new “Your Algo” feature based on the platform’s “Dear Algo” tool, which debuted in February. The Dear Algo tool allows users to influence their feed by posting a public post, such as “Dear Algo, show me more posts about podcasts,” to indicate the types of content they want to see more or less of in their feed. With the new “Your Algo” feature, users can make these preferences privately, without having to post publicly.
Users can tell threads they want to see more or less of specific topics and choose how long the request will last: one, three, or seven days. For example, you could ask to see more baseball content and less stressful news.
In early June, Instagram released a new tool that lets you see and control your algorithm across your feed. The tool, called Your Algorithm, lets you view the topics that shape your recommendations and tailor them to better suit your interests. The tool was released for the reel stream in December 2025, but is now available across all stream, explore, and reels.
Once you access the tool in your settings, you’ll see the topics Instagram thinks you’re most interested in. You can then tell the app what you’re interested in and what you want to see more or less of, and your recommendations will adjust accordingly.
Instagram head said Adam Mosheri that social media ranking models have historically been built with technology that was not transparent to users, but now large language models (LLMs) can make recommender systems more understandable by showing why content appears and letting users explicitly communicate their preferences.
TikTok
TikTok has a Topic Manager tool that gives you more control over what you see in your For You feed. Launched in 2024, you can access the feature in your settings to customize your preferences for different topics such as sports, travel, humor, current affairs, dance and food. You can do this by moving the slider to adjust how much you want or don’t want to see this kind of content in your feed for you.
If you’re not sure what type of video falls into a category, you can click the “info” button next to a topic. For example, TikTok says the Creative Arts theme includes “painting, drawing, graphic design, and art-related tutorials.”
In 2025, TikTok expanded the Topic Manager tool by introducing AI-powered Smart Keyword Filters, which automatically narrow down content that contains relevant keywords, such as synonyms. For example, if you use the Topic Manager to filter for “remodel”, TikTok will also filter for “renovations” and “renovations”.
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