Instagram Tests Sports Selector That Sends League Updates to User Feeds

Instagram is testing a feature that lets users select favorite sports and receive personalized updates from specific leagues, with app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi sharing screenshots of the experiment on Threads. TechJuice reported the test on November 15, 2026.

How the Instagram Sports Selector Works

The interface Paluzzi posted shows users picking from a list of sports and customizing the types of updates they receive from each league. Instagram then uses those selections to surface relevant real-time updates and show more sports content in feeds. Instagram has not confirmed whether the feature will roll out globally or start in specific markets.

Sports content already draws large audiences across Meta's apps. In September 2025, Meta published a report showing its apps rank among the primary online destinations for sports engagement globally. Some of Instagram's most followed accounts belong to athletes, according to Boardroom's recent analysis cited by TechJuice, and 128 million people follow the top 10 women athletes on Instagram.

The experiment connects to Meta's work on Threads, where the company has added sport-related elements including NFL commentary features. Because Instagram and Threads share infrastructure and user profiles, engagement data from one platform can inform content delivery on the other, according to TechJuice.

Instagram's Scale and Earlier Product Moves

Instagram has more than 2 billion global users according to company estimates, and India is its largest user base at approximately 545 million users, according to akta.pro company records. The same records list a $3.99/month Instagram Plus subscription among the platform's revenue streams and Adam Mosseri as Head of Instagram.

In June 2026, Instagram expanded its TV app to Samsung Smart TVs released from 2020 onwards in the United States, reaching most connected TV devices in the country, the same records show. That month OPPO also partnered with Instagram on the Oppo Lumo image program, which offers mentorship, content challenges and education for creators in India, particularly micro and nano creators outside major metropolitan centres.

Earlier Instagram Sports Experiments

On November 13, 2026, MediaPost reported that Instagram was testing a customizable sports hub with league-specific tabs such as the NBA and UEFA Europa League, driven by recommendation models that suggest leagues based on user selections. Two days earlier, Social Media News reported that Instagram was experimenting with a feature letting users select sports to customize real-time updates, citing Meta's figure of 128 million people following top women athletes on Instagram.

On November 9, 2026, The Verge reported that Instagram launched Effect Builder, an AI tool that generates custom filters for Stories from text prompts and style references, with users able to preview effects, request changes and submit them for safety review before public release.