Instagram has crossed a major milestone, reaching 3 billion monthly active users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram Head Adam Mosseri announced this week. The platform’s user base has tripled since 2018, when it first hit 1 billion monthly users.
According to Mosseri, the surge in growth has been largely driven by direct messages, Reels, and algorithmic recommendations. “Because of that, we’re going to continue to focus on those products and reorient the app more around DMs, Reels, and recommendations over the next couple of months,” Mosseri said in a video update.
The emphasis on short-form video and recommended content has helped Instagram expand but also stirred frustration among users who prefer seeing posts from people they already follow. To address this, Instagram is preparing to test a new feature that allows users to fine-tune the recommendation algorithm.
With the feature, users will be able to toggle topics the platform thinks they’re interested in. For instance, if Instagram suggests content about college football, film photography, or chess, users can mute certain topics they no longer want to see. Mosseri also revealed that Instagram plans to revamp its navigation bar, replacing the upload button with a direct link to DMs.
The milestone comes as Meta faces an antitrust trial over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Internal emails revealed during the trial highlight ongoing tensions within Meta, as Zuckerberg has expressed concern that Instagram’s popularity, particularly among younger users, has come at the expense of Facebook’s relevance.
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With its 3 billion-strong user base, Instagram now sits firmly as Meta’s most culturally dominant platform, even as the company works to keep Facebook appealing to teens and younger audiences.
