This weekend, Instagram is making a number of changes that will make it more similar to TikTok, which now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a law that would ban the app unless parent company ByteDance sells it. These changes include increasing the length of Reels to three minutes and changing the old square grid on your profile to a rectangular one, as Adam Mosseri announced in his post. and on his History accordingly. Considering how some users have created a special look for their pages around the square grid, the latter is unlikely to appeal to everyone.
And the third thing is wrong: Your Reels feed now has a tab that shows videos your friends have liked or added notes to, Mosseri shared on . This, of course, means that it will be easier for your friends to see what you like and interact with. Didn't we agree that this was pretty aggressive back when Instagram had – and eventually removed – people you follow? In any case, changes have already begun to be implemented. Now in the top right corner of the Reels tab, you will see a button showing your friends' activity, which will take you to a new channel.
Speaking about moving away from the square grid in his stories, Mosserri explained that this was in line with users' posting habits. “I know some of you really like squares, and square photos are kind of a legacy of Instagram, but at the moment most of what is uploaded – both photos and videos – are in vertical orientation, so portrait orientation is opposed to landscape or square, and it’s just a shame to cut them too much,” he said. “So I know it's a change, I know it hurts a little bit, but I think it's a transitional pain.” He went on to say, “I think in the long run, people will be happy” that their posts won't appear “aggressively cropped.”
Instagram already offered a TikTok-like view of user profiles in the Reels tab, but the latest step gives photos in the main grid a rectangular appearance (though only in the grid, they expand to normal size when you tap them individually). Regarding the increase in Reels length, Mosseri said in a separate post that while Instagram has long focused on short videos, “we've heard feedback that they're too short for those who want to share longer stories.” Previously, Instagram only allowed videos up to 90 seconds in length, although you could get around this by sharing a longer video as a non-reel post.
TikTok, which also started with a focus on short forms, a few years ago and in 2022. If TikTok does shut down, users will be looking for a new home for this type of content.