Stories ranking

For Stories ranking, Mosseri said Instagram considers stories posted within the previous 24 hours.3 Instagram’s explainer says advertisements are excluded from this process, even though viewers also see ads in Stories.1 Meta’s Transparency Center describes checks that attempt to remove stories that may violate Community Guidelines, followed by a narrowing of the available stories and further safety checks.2 The remaining stories are ordered by scores—numerical estimates used to decide their order.2

Instagram’s Stories ranking uses how often you watch an account’s stories to help identify accounts whose updates you may not want to miss.1 Instagram’s explainer also names your history of liking or messaging in response to that account’s stories, alongside your overall relationship with the author and how likely you are to be connected.1 A Meta patent from April 2021 describes a possible system trained using past viewing sessions and interactions to put more relevant individual story items earlier; it does not establish how Instagram’s current system is implemented.6

Stories ranking uses these clues to predict actions such as whether you will tap to open a story or reply to its author, Mosseri explained.3 A Meta patent from April 2021 describes a possible approach for ordering collections of temporary content—groups of related story items—partly by how likely someone is to open them and interact with them, rather than documenting Instagram’s current implementation.7 A Meta patent from February 2021 describes another possible approach that first orders collections by the likelihood of opening them, then orders remaining collections by the likelihood of spending time on them.8 That Meta patent also describes how the collection order could carry into playback after someone opens a collection.8

Stories ranking can affect reach when viewers do not browse far enough to encounter a post, when Instagram makes an ordering mistake, or when a safety measure affects the content, Mosseri explained in July 2024.4 He also said followers’ interests can change over time, without that meaning the creator’s content is bad.4 In January 2025, Mosseri recommended behind-the-scenes, raw and especially timely material, saying it could help Stories reach over time.5