Instagram is rolling out a number of changes this weekend that will make it look a lot more like TikTok, which now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the law banning the app if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it. These changes include expanding the reels to three minutes and changing your profile’s long-standing square grid to a rectangular layout, as Adam Mosseri announced in a release. and on its history, respectively. Considering how some users have created a specific look for their pages around the square grid, it probably won’t appeal to everyone.
Neither is the third thing: There’s now a tab in your Reels feed that shows you videos your friends liked or rated, which Mosseri shared . Which means, of course, that your friends can also more easily see what you like and interact with. Haven’t we already agreed that it was a bit invasive back when Instagram had – and ultimately deleted – the people you follow? Either way, the changes have already started to roll out. You will now see a button showing your friends’ activity at the top right of the Reels tab, which will take you to the new feed.
Addressing the move to the square grid in his Stories, Mosserri attributed it to aligning with users’ posting habits. “I know some of you really like your squares, and square photos are sort of Instagram’s legacy, but at this point most of what gets uploaded – photos and videos – is oriented vertically, so portrait versus landscape or square, and it’s just a shame to crop them too much,” he said. “So I know it’s a change, I know it’s a bit of a pain, but I. think it’s transitional pain.” He went on to say, “I think in the long run, people will be happy” to not have their messages appear “aggressively reframed.”
Instagram already offered a somewhat TikTok-like view of user profiles under the Reels tab, but the latest move also gives photos in the main grid the rectangular treatment (only on the grid though, they expand to their normal size when clicked individually). Regarding lengthening Reels, Mosseri said in a separate post that while Instagram has long focused on short-form videos, “we’ve heard feedback that it’s just too short for those who want to share stories longer”. Previously, Instagram only allowed Reels up to 90 seconds long, although you can get around this by sharing a longer video as a non-Reel post.
TikTok, which also started with a focus on short form, several years ago and in 2022. If TikTok actually shuts down, users will look for a new home for this type of content.
