Instagram may have backtracked on its plans to implement the TikTok-style full-screen interface, but the company hasn’t given up on the idea of catching up with the neighboring network. In a recent announcement, the director of the platform, Adam Mosseri, announced that tests with vertical photos (9:16 aspect ratio) will start within two weeks.
Traditional Instagram photos reach a 4:5 aspect ratio, something that contrasts significantly with the other formats available on the platform: Stories and, now, Reels, are both long, filling a large part of the screen of modern cell phones. Mosseri, aware of this discrepancy, wants to give vertical photos a chance, a change that could also favor the platform in the renovation to the interface inspired by the Chinese competitor.
“You can have tall videos, but you can’t have tall Instagram photos,” commented Mosseri. “So we thought maybe we should make sure we treat both of them equally,” she concluded.
Whether the change will work, only time will tell — but it’s unlikely. In recent tests with the reworked interface, Instagram fueled the discontent of the community of users who, in an international campaign, asked for the return of the “old Instagram” — the one that was more focused on photos and videos and sharing among friends.
Evident rejection
According to The Verge, the rejection was huge even for the data collected by Instagram. The platform would have observed that the target users of the experiment started to use the app less frequently.
Adam Mosseri previously commented that the 9:16 aspect ratio is not ideal for photos, but apparently he wants to test the reception of the novelty among users. Now, it remains to be seen whether Instagram’s plans will really catch on with the public.