Instagram is developing a prototype feature called Picks, designed to help users connect over shared hobbies, tastes, and entertainment preferences. The Meta-owned platform confirmed that Picks is currently an internal experiment and is not yet available for public testing.
Highlights
- Prototype Feature: Picks is an internal Instagram experiment aimed at connecting users through shared hobbies and entertainment preferences.
- Curated Lists: Users could create lists of favorite movies, books, TV shows, games, and music, with overlaps highlighted to spark conversations.
- Part of Social Connection Push: Fits into Instagram’s 2025 priorities of fostering creativity, interactivity, and friend-focused engagement tools.
- Interest-Based Discovery: Aligns with other features in development like friend maps, reposts, and a friend-focused Reels feed.
- Shifting Engagement Trends: Reflects a move toward interest-driven interactions as fewer users share original content.
- Data for Recommendations & Ads: Explicit user preferences could improve content suggestions and enable more targeted advertising.
- No Release Timeline: Still in early testing, with no guarantee of public rollout.
The first indications of the feature emerged when reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, known for discovering unreleased app features, spotted it in development.
According to screenshots he shared, Picks would allow users to create curated lists of their favorite movies, books, TV shows, games, and music.
Instagram could then highlight overlaps between friends’ selections, potentially making it easier to start conversations and strengthen personal connections.
Part of Instagram’s Social Connection Push
Although Instagram has not shared specific details about how Picks will function, the concept aligns with the company’s stated goal of fostering creativity and deeper social interaction.
Earlier this year, Instagram head Adam Mosseri outlined 2025 priorities that include focusing on messaging, making content consumption more interactive, and exploring new ways to connect with friends.
Picks also appears to fit into a wider set of interest-based features in development, such as a friend-focused Reels feed, friend maps, and repost options.
Together, these tools indicate a shift toward helping users discover and engage with each other based on common interests, rather than solely through original content creation.
Adapting to Changing User Behavior
Historically, Instagram has encouraged interaction through posts and Stories. However, with fewer users sharing original content, the platform is exploring alternative ways to spark engagement—favoring curated lists, interactive formats, and shared-interest discovery features like Picks.
This trend reflects a broader shift in social media toward interest-based communities, where connection is driven less by public broadcasting and more by personal relevance and direct interaction.
Potential Benefits for Recommendations and Ads
While Instagram’s algorithms already infer user interests from activity such as likes, shares, and watch time, Picks could offer explicit, user-provided data.
Directly declared preferences might enhance the accuracy of content recommendations and allow for more relevant ad targeting, providing Instagram with a clearer picture of what users value.
No Public Release Timeline Yet
As with many early-stage prototypes, there is no confirmed release date—or guarantee—that Picks will roll out to the public. Some features remain in testing indefinitely, while others are adapted or abandoned based on user feedback.
