Meta operates products at global scale, with Instagram serving hundreds of millions of daily users and competing for attention, creator activity, and long-term retention. The company invests heavily in user experience research to guide product decisions, especially in high-sensitivity segments such as teens.
Instagram leadership is considering three possible investments for teen users in the next half: stronger anti-bullying controls in DMs, improved content discovery for new creators in Reels, and tools that help teens manage time spent in-app. Research capacity is limited: your team can deeply study only 2 of the 3 areas this quarter.
Existing signals are mixed. Internal data shows teen 90-day retention has declined from 61% to 57% over two quarters. Reports of negative social experiences in teen surveys rose from 12% to 16%. Reels consumption among teens is growing, but creator posting frequency for new teen creators is down 9% quarter-over-quarter. Policy, legal, and public trust teams are also paying close attention to teen well-being.