• by Colin Kirkland , August 13, 2025

Following the success of Discord, Substack and other platforms centered on users’ shared interests, Instagram is testing an internal prototype called “Picks” designed to gather users around topics and tastes. 

Based on screenshots shared by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Picks appears in the platform’s Notes feed, with a prompt to “Add what you’re into.” This includes users’ favorite films, books, games, music and more. 

The social media app’s algorithm will then mine the platform for users who share the same interests and likely pool them into some type of community, although Instagram has yet to disclose specific details about how Picks will work. 

Early testing of Picks aligns with Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s recent plan to “help people connect with friends over the things they discover” by promoting messaging in a “more interactive and social” way. 

The feature is reminiscent of community-based platforms like Substack, Reddit, and Discord, which prioritize group socialization around niche interests. 

Discord in particular has thrived over the past decade, pushing the concept of online micro-communities into the larger social media landscape. 

In the last year, Meta has been implementing various community-focused features across its family of apps, testing a Discord-like “Community Chat” feature that allows Instagram users to organize interest-based groups of up to 250 people.