algorithm got us here

Hi,

There are many chatrooms on Douyin (an app). I notice stayed in a chatroom for more than five minutes, or watched some videos, the similar chatrooms or videos would be recommended to me by the system. For example, I like watching videos about studying English and cats, then I got many videos about them. When I stayed in a chatroom for a while, next time I used that app, I got many recommendations about "online chatrooms".

Just now I was in a chatroom (on Douyin) and a group of people were chatting. Someone said "Algorithm got us here" to explain the above phenomenon, which means "It's the system that put us together because of what we like in common".

Is it idiomatic to say the bold?

It sounds idiomatic, informal and very relaxed. Normally one would say, "The algorithm...," but in chatrooms people often write telegram style, omitting articles.

To me it's beyond informal. In the context of the OP, i.e. in an informal chatroom where people are presumably practicing English, it sounds and looks exactly like a learner's mistake. Algorithms are countable, so I'd say "an algorithm (or "the algorithm" or "some algorithm") got us here." I can only imagine saying "algorithm got us here" if you are speaking extremely informally and trying to use as few words as possible for some reason. And in that case, I think the response to "How'd we end up in this chat room?" would be just "Algorithm."
In ordinary speech (and in writing ordinary grammatical English) I would avoid saying "Algorithm got us here" unless it is absolutely clear from everything else you say and write that you are not making a learner's mistake: in other words, I'd recommend it only if someone is fluent in English and knows when to use articles for countable nouns.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply, teacher Roxxx.

I have one more question:

I know the phrase "got somebody here" means "somebody doesn't have an answer to a question".

Would "The algorithm got us here" be misunderstood?

Silver said:

I know the phrase "got somebody here" means "somebody doesn't have an answer to a question".

That is incorrect. The phrase is neither positive nor negative in itself. Also, you have misinterpreted the use of this phrase.

Scenario
Two hikers are lost in the mountains and it is getting dark.
John: Don't worry. I'll have a look at the map!
Mary: Don't bother. It was your terrible map-reading that got us here in the first place!

Silver said:

Would "The algorithm got us here" be misunderstood?

It would be understood to mean.

We are all here at the same time because the algorithm that this chatroom uses brought us all together - it detected that we all have similar interests.

As I said "to get someone somewhere" is neither positive nor negative. Nor does it indicate there is problem.

Example of a positive usage

- Thank you for your generosity Grandfather! By paying for my education, you got me where I am today - a successful entrepreneur. Without you I would be nothing.

I don't understand your question in #5. Are you thinking of a situation like the following?
A asks B a lot of questions, starting with ones that are easy to answer and ending with a very difficult one.
When A asks the very difficult one, B replies with something like "You got me there. I have no idea what the answer is to that question."

If that's what you mean, in your context in the OP "The algorithm got us here" would not be confused with the use of 'got' in my scenario here, nor would it be mistaken for anything but something like "The algorithm is the means by which we arrived at this place online."

cross-posted (and edited)