Once a user has seen all posts from accounts they follow, Instagram's AI automatically begins showing posts from accounts they have never interacted with. Called "Suggested Posts," this feature launched on Instagram in August 2020 and has since become a major part of the Instagram experience.

The Suggested Posts system uses a separate machine learning pipeline from the connected feed ranking system, drawing on a user's engagement history with similar content, inferred interests, and post characteristics to surface content from unfollowed accounts. The feature extends the user's time on the app and creates additional advertising inventory. Users can mute suggestions for 30 days but cannot permanently disable them. Meta published a system card specifically for this Instagram recommendation system in June 2023.