Instagram adds a new feature to analyze your competition

Instagram has introduced a new (and perhaps controversial) feature within its Professional Dashboard: “Competitive Insights”, a tool that enables professional accounts—whether business or creator profiles—to compare their activity with that of other similar accounts. This option is currently in the implementation phase and appears within the dashboard, although it has not yet been made available to all users (for instance, it is not yet operational for Marketing4ecommerce).

The Threads user Sarah Roizman, published a thread on the social network explaining where the feature appears and how the data is displayed:

 

Ver en Threads

 

With this new feature, users may select up to 10 public accounts to compare themselves against in metrics such as follower growth and publishing frequency across different formats: Reels, feed posts, and advertisements. The data is presented in a table format, with comparative figures displayed side by side.

What this new tool offers (and what doesn’t)

The comparison is straightforward; there are no graphs or accumulated data, and the available metrics are limited. One may see how often each account publishes, how its follower base evolves, and some information regarding individual posts, even if an account hides its “likes.” However, indicators such as clicks, engagement rates, conversions, or segmentation by content type are not included.

The design is intended to provide a quick and visual overview. There is no possibility to group accounts or conduct trend analyses. Each comparison is individual, with no functionality to identify broad patterns or analyze the development of entire sectors.

Although the figures shown are public, the feature has prompted debate regarding data exposure and privacy, especially because it displays interactions from individual posts without explicit consent. Instagram has not specified which exact data it processes or how it aggregates them. In fact, no official announcement regarding this new feature has been issued yet.

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This tool positions itself as a basic form of benchmarking within the platform itself, an area previously covered only by external tools. For now, its usefulness will depend on the manner in which each account chooses to utilize it, whether as a guide for content strategies or as support in reporting results.

Photo: Threads account of Sarah Roizman and Canva.