The app guesses→It shows you that→You watch it→The guess gets stronger
...and round again.
Put the last three lessons together and you get a loop. The app guesses what you will watch. It shows you that. You watch it, which proves the guess right. The guess gets stronger, so it shows you more. Round and round. People call this a feedback loop.
0 in every 100 videos34 in every 100 videos67 in every 100 videos
Day 1Day 5
Made-up: the top topic's share of a feed, day by day.
Loops narrow. On day one your feed is a bit of everything, because the app has no guesses yet. Each day, whatever you watched most takes a bigger share. Not because you asked. Because each watch is a vote, and the loop counts votes.
The app guesses→It shows you that→You watch it→?
In the loop, what makes the guess stronger?
You telling it what you like in the settings.
Not yet. Settings are a whisper next to watching. Most apps let you name a topic; a day of watching says far more.
You watching what it showed you.
Right. Each watch is a yes to the guess. The app cannot tell a yes from a habit, so it counts them all.
The app choosing to be more sure.
Not yet. The app does not choose. A number moves when a watch is logged, and the app follows the number.
What it showed youit learns from
vsvs
What it never showed youit cannot learn
The loop has a catch. It can only strengthen a guess about things it has already shown you. If it never shows you woodwork, you never watch woodwork, so it never learns you like it. The feed knows what you did with what it chose. It knows nothing about what it did not choose.
Move the control to set how strongly the app follows what you watched. The rule is made up: your top topic starts at 10 in 100 and grows with the setting over ten sessions.
Your top topic10 in every 100 · 10%
Everything else90 in every 100 · 90%
Not at allAfter ten sessions your top topic is still 10 in 100. The app ignored what you watched, so the feed never changed.
Your top topic28 in every 100 · 28%
Everything else72 in every 100 · 72%
A littleAfter ten sessions your top topic is 28 in 100 of the feed, up from 10.
Your top topic55 in every 100 · 55%
Everything else45 in every 100 · 45%
About halfAfter ten sessions your top topic is 55 in 100 of the feed, up from 10.
Your top topic82 in every 100 · 82%
Everything else18 in every 100 · 18%
StronglyAfter ten sessions your top topic is 82 in 100 of the feed, up from 10.
Your top topic100 in every 100
Everything else0 in every 100
FullyAfter ten sessions every video is the one topic. Nothing new ever arrives.
Which setting is the app most likely to choose, given what lesson two said it counts?
Fully. More of the same is always more minutes.
Not yet. Fully means nothing new ever arrives, and people leave feeds that bore them. The setting that wins is strong, with a few new things mixed in to find the next thing you will stay for.
A strong one. A feed that follows what you watched keeps you longer, and minutes are the score.
Right. The setting is a dial in the company's hands, and the company measures minutes. Whatever setting gives the most minutes is the one that stays.
Not at all. A varied feed is fairer.
Not yet. Fair is not a number the app counts. Minutes are. A setting that spreads the feed thin loses minutes to a feed that gives people more of what they stayed for.
Move the control.
Your top topics85 in every 100 · 85%
Tests: things you have never watched15 in every 100 · 15%
Made-up split.
This is why apps mix in a few surprises. Some of every feed is a test: a video from a topic you have never watched. If you flick past, the guess stays low. If you pause, a new loop begins. The surprises are how the app finds the next thing you will stay for.
Tests15 videos · 15%
The rest85 videos · 85%
A feed shows 100 videos a session. The app keeps 15 of them as tests. Cats are your top topic. If all the rest are cats, how many cats in the session?
videos
Right. Eighty-five of the hundred. The fifteen are the app looking for a second topic that keeps you. If it finds one, the cats get a smaller share next week.
Which of these is the loop at work, and which is the app testing something new on you?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
A fourth video from a creator you watched three times today.
A pottery video, though you have never watched pottery.
A song you replayed, now under every third video.
A video in a language you have never used on the app.
More of the football team you paused on last night.
A cooking video after a month of gaming videos.
A fourth video from a creator you watched three times today. → The loop
Not yet. The loop. Three watches raised the guess for that creator, and a high guess brings a fourth.
A pottery video, though you have never watched pottery. → A test
Not yet. A test. There is no guess about you and pottery yet, so the app shows one to make a guess from what you do.
A song you replayed, now under every third video. → The loop
Not yet. The loop. A replay is a loud signal, and the loop turns a loud signal into more of the same.
A video in a language you have never used on the app. → A test
Not yet. A test. The app is checking whether a new kind of thing keeps you, because nothing you did pointed to it.
More of the football team you paused on last night. → The loop
Not yet. The loop. Last night's pauses were votes, and the loop counted them into this morning's feed.
A cooking video after a month of gaming videos. → A test
Not yet. A test. A month of gaming gave the app no reason to show cooking; it is trying something outside the loop.
The loopmore of what you did
vsvs
A testsomething you have not done
Right. The loop gives you more of what you did. A test gives you something you did not do, to see whether you will. Both come from the same score: one from a guess that is high, one from a guess the app is still trying to make.
One personall football
vs
The otherall make-up
Same app, same day.
Two people install the same app on the same day. A month later, one's feed is all football and the other's is all make-up. What happened?
The app sorted them by what it knew about them at sign-up.
Not yet. At sign-up it knew almost nothing. What it knows now it learned from a month of pauses and flicks, in a loop, not from a form.
Each watched a little more of one thing on day one, and the loop grew that into most of the feed.
Right. The first day's small lean is enough. Every watch after it was counted as a vote, and a month of votes is a feed made of one thing.
Football and make-up are simply what the app has most of.
Not yet. The app has both, and millions of other things. Which one filled a feed was decided by who paused on what, not by what was in the store.
Lesson complete
What you are shown changes what you do, and what you do changes what you are shown. That loop narrows.