Instagram Will Continue To Focus On Full-Screen Content With Upcoming Tests For Ultra-Tall Images

It might seem to many that Meta’s march to copy TikTok’s algorithms may have slowed down by quite an extent but we’d like to inform you that it’s not stopped by any means.

While Instagram may have listened to many people crying out loud to stop focusing on copying TikTok, more news reports from the company are clearly hinting how they’re yet to shift focus from full-screen content.

Now, Instagram will soon be launching tests for ultra-tall images that can well align with its full-screen reels. So if you were breathing a sigh of relief that the controversial redesign isn’t happening, well, this is definitely a rude awakening.

The news comes to us thanks to the platform’s CEO Adam Mosseri who revealed during a recent session of Ask Me Anything that Instagram is going to soon carry out a test for the extra-tall 9:16 images.

The testing phase will begin by next week or perhaps after that but it’s definitely happening, the CEO confirmed today.

Mosseri added that the app was making the most of tall videos without users having access to tall images. So what not introduce the latter so both aspects are given equal importance, right? After all, Instagram was first renowned for its pictures, after which the craze for videos and Reels came.

On average, Instagram is producing images in the 4:5 ratio whenever vertical pictures are displayed across the app and cropped accurately. Now, the change would allow for more support regarding images that fall in the 9:16 ratio, which are not only much taller but slimmer too.

This way, the image would end up filling up your entire screen while you continue scrolling through Instagram’s news feed.

But we don’t know how the response to the change is going to go as in the previous history with the same experiment received plenty of backlash from known photographers who felt the app was clearly not thinking straight.

They added that forcing images to fit the bigger 9:16 frame was not only awkward but really made the images seem out of place. Also, the new Instagram feed was seen incorporating overlay ingredients to the posts’ bottom portion. This way, the app thought the written text would be much simpler to read.

But the convenience factor really bombarded the photographer’s work and the end result was not a happy one.

Throughout the past few weeks, we’ve seen Mosseri bump heads with the app’s users on the final outlook of Instagram and its redesign. And the Instagram CEO has clearly spoken several times about how tall reels will always look better when compared to tall images.

In other words, the full-screen experience is more suitable for Reels than it is for pictures. Yet, the fact that the app is still willing to enter into the territory with a test that’s rolling out soon is definitely questionable.

Also, Instagram’s own tests have proven that people aren’t loving the overhauled design and it’s causing them to dislike and tune in less. Hence, we’re curious to see how the feedback for this test goes.

H/T: TheVerge

Read next: Facebook Highlighted For Having The Most Difficult Terms Of Service That Only College Graduates Can Comprehend
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World