The rectangular grid was just the beginning.
Instagram faced a user revolt after suddenly changing its longtime signature square grid to rectangles starting back on January 17, ruining some users’ carefully aligned profile grids. (R.I.P. Taylor Swift Evermore grid.)
Now, the platform says it has additional changes in the works to give users more control over how their profiles look. It’s true, the UI and UX updates should give users a lot more flexibility and control over their individual experience—but no matter what changes users make on an individual level, the app itself is about to look a lot more like TikTok.
“We launched a new tall grid on profile this week and I got a lot of feedback, both positive and quite negative,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in an Instagram caption Monday. “The goal is a simpler, cleaner place that maintains, and even increases, creator control.”
WHICH INSTAGRAM FEATURES ARE CHANGING?
Here’s a rundown of the expected changes:
Adjust the crop of grid images: Users will soon be able to customize how their posts appear on the grid by letting them adjust the display crop of images and even reorder their grid entirely.
Post directly to grid: Instagram also plans to allow users to post directly to the grid without simultaneously posting to their feed.
Highlights move to the grid: The platform is moving its Highlights feature, which allows users to pin stories to the top of their profile. “Highlights are a great way to showcase your favorite stories,” Mosseri said, but added “they are visually complicated and push your grid down” in their current placement. Soon, Highlights will move from their current position above the grid into a tab. They will also be integrated into a user’s profile grid itself.
Vertical post format is here to stay: Mosseri said the change to a vertical, or rectangular, post format was “because most photos and videos that are uploaded to Instagram at this point are vertical and rectangles do a better job showing off those photos and videos.” TikTok popularized this format, but Instagram Story videos are also already formatted this way. Mosseri added that these plans “might change as we iterate over the next couple months,” but hoped that by sharing their intentions early it will “help avoid any more harsh surprises.”
Reels get increased run time: Mosseri announced over the weekend that the length of Reels was being increased from 90 seconds to up to three minutes. Meta did not immediately respond to questions about the timing of other updates.
JUST ADD TIKTOK DANCES
Instagram’s implemented the switch to a vertical layout after TikTok’s ban went into effect in the U.S., which President Donald Trump temporarily delayed enforcement of for 75 days with an executive order. TikTok is still vulnerable, though, as it’s not available to update or download in app stores. Instagram smells an opportunity to snag some of those disaffected daily active users.
The new layout format wasn’t the only step the Meta-owned app has taken to position itself as a TikTok alternative. On Sunday, Meta introduced the standalone Edits app, its dupe of the video-editing app CapCut, which is owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. Meta has also offered cash bonuses to creators who agree to post their videos to Instagram and Facebook. Try out Meta, fellow young people, we have vertical layouts now.
But it’s not just the user experience that’s giving the tech company grief. Meta is facing wider blowback over non-design changes it’s made to its apps, like its end of fact checking in favor of X-style Community Notes, and its AI characters, which were deleted in the beginning of January.
