Saves

To save an Instagram Feed post, tap the bookmark icon beneath it.1 Instagram's collection instructions say to hold that icon to choose an existing collection or name a new one; to organize previously saved posts, tap the plus icon in the saved-posts area, name a collection and select the posts to include.3 Mosseri explains that saved content is accessible through your profile's top-right menu under Saved, including saved audio.2 For shopping, Instagram says to tap a product tag in Stories or Feed and then the Save icon at the bottom right to add the item to a Shopping collection, accessible from your profile.7 Instagram's Reels template browser also includes categories for templates or audio you have already saved.8 To keep a Reel effect for later, Instagram's effects instructions say to preview it and tap its bookmark icon.9

Instagram uses someone's past saves, likes, shares and comments to find possible Explore recommendations: photos and videos from accounts that person does not yet follow.4 Meta's Transparency Center also lists the number of posts someone has saved recently, both within Explore and across Instagram, among the information used by the Explore system.10 Instagram then orders the selected posts partly by predicting how likely the person is to like, save or share each one.411 A technical account published on the Meta AI blog described combining predicted actions into a score, with different amounts of influence assigned to likes, saves and negative actions.12 The account illustrated that approach by saying saves could receive more influence if they were considered more important; this was a conditional example, not a published fixed rule that saves always outweigh likes.12

Mosseri said Instagram gives likes more attention because they are more numerous than saves, provide more training data and tend to correspond more closely with whether someone wanted to see a post.5 He also said Instagram looks at how often people send, share and save content, rather than considering only one kind of response.5 In August 2024, Mosseri explained the emphasis on sends in terms of social connection: sending a funny clip to a friend creates a shared experience, whereas saving is usually something someone does alone.13