Facebook lets you tell its algorithm what you want to see, in your own words

Meta says it is rolling out "Your algorithm" on Facebook, a space where you add the topics you want to see in Feed and Reels. The company announced it in a newsroom post dated 13 October 2026, alongside new follow-up questions on the Interested and Not interested buttons.

What Meta announced

The post describes three changes:

• Your algorithm. Meta writes: "We’re rolling out Your algorithm, where you can directly add and manage the topics you want to see in Feed and Reels." It calls this "a dedicated space to tell us exactly what you’re into" and says "You can find it in the three-dot menu."
• Follow-up questions on feedback. "After clicking ‘Interested’ or ‘Not interested,’ we may ask follow up questions for more detail on what you liked or disliked", the post says. Meta says you can then tell it "in your own words" what you want more or less of, and that "your recommendations will update in real time".
• A reworked three-dot menu. Meta says it has "updated the three-dot menu on every post to make it easier to access these new customization tools."

Meta describes the tools as "AI-powered". It does not name a specific model. The post says "large language models are helping us" with ranking, and that recommendations respond "in real time, adapting within the same session to reflect what matters to you right now."

How it is meant to work

Meta's post says its ranking systems already infer interests "from the posts you like and comment on to what you watch (among thousands of other signals)". The change, in Meta's words, is "bringing freeform text together with everything we already understand about what you enjoy". On our reading, what you type is added to the signals Facebook already uses rather than replacing them.

The post gives the entry point (the three-dot menu) and the feedback flow. It does not give step-by-step instructions. Facebook's Help Centre search loads its results with JavaScript, so our text-only fetch could not show whether a help page with steps exists. For that reason this is a news piece, not a how-to. We have not tested the feature ourselves.

Where and when

Meta's post says the feature is "rolling out". It names no countries, languages or completion date. Meta's post does not give a UK date, so we cannot say whether, or when, UK users will see Your algorithm. If the option is not in your three-dot menu yet, the post does not say when it will arrive.

The Instagram precedent

TechCrunch reports that Meta "first launched" the feature on Instagram. When Instagram launched its Your Algorithm tool for Reels on Wednesday 10 December 2025, TechCrunch reported it was "available starting Wednesday in the U.S. and will roll out globally in English soon." TechCrunch's 13 October piece says Instagram later extended it to Feed and Explore in June. We could not read Instagram's own announcement page as text, so those details rest on TechCrunch.

What the post does not say

We read Meta's post in full. It does not cover:

• which countries or languages get the feature, or a timetable;
• how to remove a topic or reset what you have added (Meta says you can "manage" topics, but not how);
• how long a typed topic keeps its effect;
• whether what you type is used for advertising or stored.

PPC Land, a trade site covering advertising, raised the same advertising and persistence gaps in its write-up on 13 October.

Why it matters

On Meta's account, this is a change in how Facebook ranking takes input: freeform text now sits beside the behavioural signals it already reads. On our reading, the practical questions for UK users are the ones the post leaves open: when it reaches them, how to undo what they type, and what else that text is used for. Meta has not answered those in this announcement.