Topics · Signal
Relationship strength
Contents
Relationship strength on Instagram means how closely connected you are to another account, as reflected in your relationship and interactions with it.1 Instagram’s March 2016 Feed announcement named the viewer’s relationship with the person posting as a factor in post order, alongside likely interest and how recently the post was shared.2 Meta’s patents describe possible ways to represent relationship strength numerically through “affinity” scores, including combining relationship scores from two social networks when ordering content.34 Another patent proposes updating these estimates as actions and relationships continue to be monitored.5 Meta’s Transparency Center’s September 2025 Stories documentation lists relationship information such as likely connections outside Instagram and Facebook friendship, alongside viewing history, replies and message exchanges; replies relative to Stories watched and message exchanges are listed only where data privacy laws permit.1
How relationships affect content order
Instagram included relationships in its March 2016 announcement that Feed would soon place posts in a personalized order.2 That announcement named the viewer’s relationship with the person posting alongside likely interest in the content and how recently it was posted.2 Meta’s Transparency Center’s September 2025 Stories documentation identifies more specific relationship information: how likely a viewer is to know an author outside Instagram and whether they are friends on Facebook.1
Author-specific interactions in Stories
Instagram Stories’ relationship evidence includes how often a viewer looks at an author’s posts and how many times that author’s Stories have been viewed.1 Meta’s Transparency Center also lists interactions such as replies relative to the number of that author’s Stories the viewer has watched, where data privacy laws permit.1 Message exchanges between the viewer and author are another listed input, with the same qualification about data privacy laws.1
How Meta patents describe relationship scores
Meta research and patents. These may not describe how Instagram works today.
Meta’s patents offer a possible way to summarize relationship evidence numerically: they describe “affinity” as relationship strength or interest and use scores to represent it.34 A Meta patent proposes that this estimate could change as actions and relationships continue to be monitored.5 Another Meta patent proposes combining relationship scores from two social networks when deciding the order of content, illustrating how multiple sources of relationship evidence could contribute to one decision.3