Part 2: Instagram Isn't Working Anymore
Part 2: Instagram Isn't Working Anymore
Okay, so after I posted Part One of “Instagram Isn’t Working Anymore”, my emails absolutely blew up in the best way possible. I had creators, business owners, and people who swear they were “done with Instagram” all messaging me some version of the same thing, which was basically “why did no one explain it like this before” and “this finally makes sense.”
That reaction alone should tell you something important, which is that IG isn’t actually broken. I just find that most people are just operating on outdated information.
So let’s get into Part Deux because this is where things start to shift from surface-level changes into strategy-level changes, andddddd this is also where a lot of people are unknowingly leaving reach, trust, and money on the table.
4. Instagram is rolling out AI caption assistance
AI captions are now built into the writing process, but they are not doing the work for you. In 2026, Instagram has officially rolled out AI caption assistance inside the caption editor.
What this tool actually does is help structure your thoughts by suggesting hooks based on previous audience behavior, expanding short ideas into longer educational captions. Warning though, bc what it does NOT do well is replicate your darling personality, which is exactly why fully AI-written captions are still underperforming.
In other words, you can let it help you organize your message, but the moment you remove your own language, your own perspective, and your own specificity, engagement drops. Instagram is rewarding clarity and authenticity, not automation.
5. Instagram is heavily weighing recent behavior, not historical loyalty.
I’m gonna cut straight to the chase on this one. Follower filtering is the real reason your reach looks “random.”
In 2026, IG’s heavily weighting recent behavior, not historical loyalty. This is where it gets good because your content is shown first to the people who have engaged with you in the last thirty days through story replies, DMs, saves, shares, and actual watch time, not not not just likes or passive follows. If that group responds well, your content expands outward. If they do not, it stalls.
This means ghost followers from years ago are no longer neutral. They actively dilute your early engagement signals.
This is also why smaller accounts with highly responsive audiences are outperforming larger accounts that never rebuilt connection after past algorithm changes. So instead of posting more, you just need to reconnect with your audience again. Stories with questions, polls, direct prompts, and genuine conversation retrain your IG account to understand who your content is actually for.
So that’s Part Two, and judging by the responses to Part One, I know this information is landing for a lot of you.
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XX Idalia