As the recent controversy was focused on that “Meta-owned Instagram wanted to make a TikTok-style feed,” the company took a step back and rolled back the design, but it still seems obsessed with it.
Instagram Might Introduce 9:16 Photos Feed View Soon
At the weekly Ask Me Anything today, Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed Instagram would begin testing a new feed view for the photos soon, and this “soon” means one or two weeks. We all know that Instagram shows reels in tall screen view, and recently it also made 15 minutes shorter video as reels, so it will also be seen in tall screen view, which seems like full screen, but photos were never changed from its square view. And this new view for photos is ultra-tall 9:16 photos that will allow you to post vertical images and replace the current 4:5 view, but you can still post in square cropped images because another left area will become a gradient. As Mosseri explained, “You can have tall videos, but you cannot have tall photos on Instagram,” and then further, he said, “so we thought maybe we should make sure that we treat both equally.” If you are wondering what it will look like, we can rely on some images that Photographer Thomas Fitzgerald shared in his blog that he posted in May. According to his images, this new view seems no different than the earlier reels view, but it will also be an advantage. There is an overlay gradient to the bottom of posts to make text readable. And it will be available to limited people in upcoming weeks for testing purposes, and the company will roll it out according to their feedback.
