Topics · Signal
Content type
Content type means the format of an item on Instagram, such as video, photos or text1. Meta’s August 2015 and August 2019 patents describe filters that let users narrow social-network feeds by format, including feeds of recent posts from their connections and feeds of content considered important or relevant; these are patent descriptions rather than statements about available Instagram controls23. In Meta’s July 2018 news-filtering patent, content type instead means a story’s subject category or subcategory, which the system can identify by examining the story or linked content, including through keyword matching4. Instagram for Creators’ May 2023 guidance encourages creators to make engaging content in a format that suits how they want to create1.
Formats and content filters
Instagram’s content formats include video, photos and text1. Meta’s August 2015 patent describes content-type filters that narrow the items displayed in a social-network feed according to their format3. Meta’s August 2019 patent describes applying content-type filters to either or both of two feeds: one showing recent posts from a user’s connections, and another showing content considered important or relevant2.
Subject categories in news filtering
Meta research and patents. These may not describe how Instagram works today.
Meta’s July 2018 news-filtering patent organizes content types into related categories and narrower subcategories4. The Meta patent describes identifying those categories by examining a news story, the external content it links to, or both4. In one approach described in the Meta patent, the system extracts keywords and assigns a category when enough of those words match keywords associated with it4. The Meta patent gives a story about President Obama’s tax plan as an example that could belong to “Politics” or “Tax Reform”4.