Instagram ranks shares over likes now, here's what Mosseri actually said

A number gets repeated a lot in creator circles: 10 shares supposedly outweigh 100 likes in Instagram's ranking system. It's a clean, quotable rule, and it isn't real. Adam Mosseri did confirm that Instagram's ranking leans on watch time, likes, and sends as its top three signals, in a direct statement in January 2025 (Social Media Today, 2025). What he actually said about the relationship between likes and shares is more specific, and more useful, than the multiplier version that made it around.

Key Takeaways

• Mosseri has publicly named Instagram's top three ranking signals as watch time, likes, and sends, not a creator theory (Social Media Today, January 2025).
• The real nuance: likes matter slightly more for reaching your existing followers, sends matter slightly more for reaching new people, not a blanket "shares always beat likes" rule.
• The specific "10 shares equals 100 likes" ratio has no official source and overstates what Mosseri actually said.
• Instagram is separately cracking down on reposted and aggregated content; by 2026, accounts that mostly repost other people's work become non-recommendable platform-wide.

What did Mosseri actually say about ranking signals?

"The top three signals that matter most for ranking are watch time, likes and sends," Mosseri said in a January 2025 post, later summarized by Social Media Today's algorithm coverage (Social Media Today, 2025). That's the actual, citable list. Notice what isn't on it: hashtags, comment count, or a fixed exchange rate between any two signals.

Is it true that shares matter more than likes?

Only for a specific kind of reach, and Mosseri was precise about which one: "Likes are slightly more important for connected content, and sends are slightly more important for unconnected content" (Social Media Today, 2025). Connected content is what reaches your existing followers; unconnected content is what reaches everyone else. That's a meaningful distinction, and it's a long way from "10 shares equals 100 likes."

Worth noting: The multiplier version of this rule shows up across marketing blogs with no named source behind it, and it actively contradicts Mosseri's own wording of "slightly more important," which describes a mild edge, not an order-of-magnitude trade.

Do comments and rewatches matter too?

Less clearly than shares and likes do. Comments aren't part of Mosseri's confirmed top three, so treat claims that a real text comment outweighs an emoji reaction as creator folklore rather than a documented ranking factor. Rewatch behavior is a related but separate question: Instagram launched a Reels watch history feature in October 2025 that lets people revisit videos they've already watched, which suggests rewatching is something the platform tracks (TechCrunch, 2025). That's a user-facing feature, though, not a confirmed statement that a rewatch counts differently from watch time generally.

Why does reposted content keep losing reach?

This is the part of the algorithm story that's changed the most and gets talked about the least. In April 2024, Instagram began favoring the original version of a piece of content in Explore, Reels, and feed recommendations over reposts and aggregator accounts (TechCrunch, 2024). By April 2026, that policy escalated: Mosseri stated that accounts posting mostly other people's content stop being recommendable at all, with originality evaluated monthly, and crediting or watermarking someone else's post no longer counts as enough of a change (PetaPixel, 2026). Meaningful transformation is now the bar, not a caption and a repost button.

So what should you actually optimize for?

Watch time first, since it's the one signal Mosseri lists that applies everywhere, connected and unconnected reach alike. After that, think about which kind of reach a specific post is chasing: content built to land with people who already follow you can lean on likes, content built to reach strangers should be worth sending to someone else. And if any part of your strategy still depends on reposting or lightly repackaging other people's content, that's now actively working against you rather than sitting neutral.

OfficeOS builds what the algorithm can't measure

Watch time and sends tell you Instagram liked a post. Neither one tells you whether the people watching would pay for what you make. Ranking signals measure attention, not revenue, and the gap between the two is where most creators stall out. OfficeOS builds the subscription app that turns algorithm-favored reach into actual income, the part Instagram's ranking system was never built to track.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do shares really matter more than likes on Instagram now?

Only for reaching people who don't already follow you. Mosseri has said sends are "slightly more important" for unconnected content while likes are "slightly more important" for connected content (Social Media Today, 2025). It's a mild edge in each direction, not a rule that shares always outrank likes.

Is the "10 shares equals 100 likes" rule true?

No. There's no official Instagram or Meta source for that specific ratio, and it isn't consistent with Mosseri's own "slightly more important" phrasing, which describes a modest weighting difference, not a 10x multiplier.

Does reposting other people's content still work for growth?

It's actively getting worse, not staying flat. Since April 2024, Instagram has favored original content over reposts in recommendations, and by April 2026 that escalated to making mostly-repost accounts non-recommendable platform-wide, with originality reassessed monthly (PetaPixel, 2026).

What's the single most important ranking signal on Instagram right now?

Watch time is the one signal Mosseri lists that applies to both connected and unconnected reach, making it the closest thing to a universal factor among the confirmed top three: watch time, likes, and sends (Social Media Today, 2025).

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