Instagram’s ‘Explore’ tab now shows photos from people you actually know

Instagram is trying to make its “Explore” section feel more personal, rather than overload users with photos from celebrities they care little or nothing about. Or at least that’s the idea, according to TechCrunch. You’ve likely started seeing more photos that’ve been liked people you follow on Instagram in place of the food shots and selfies of total strangers that dominated Explore before. There’s still some of that — quite a bit, actually. And despite Instagram’s best attempts to make everything feel more customized to your taste, Explore remains in need of deeper improvements.

You’re still left clueless as to exactly why a photo makes its way there. Instagram doesn’t tell you which friend liked a certain shot, so you’ll need to scroll through a long list if you’re curious. From the outside, this sort of annoyance doesn’t seem particularly difficult to remedy, and the current implementation almost makes a tailored list pointless. It’s never immediately clear why Instagram is feeding you many of the photos that you see, but at least Facebook is constantly working to improve things. “We’re always looking to update the types of posts you see in Explore to better tailor it to you,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We’ll show you a variety of photos and videos that people you follow have liked, as well as content that is trending in the Instagram community.”