Instagram will test extra-tall photos to go along with Reels
Instagram will soon allow users to post 9:16 photos to their feed as part of a test the company plans to undertake “in a week or two.” The tidbit of news came out of Adam Mosseri’s weekly Q&A. “You can have tall videos, but you cannot have tall photos on Instagram,” the executive said. “So we thought maybe we should make sure that we treat both equally.”
While it’s already possible to share 9:16 photos through Instagram, you have to do so through the app’s Stories feature, meaning those images will disappear unless you save them as a Highlight. Currently, vertical photos you post to your feed will top out at 8:10 as long as you crop them correctly.
It's been a busy week at Instagram. I'm doing an AMA shortly – https://t.co/aM4JODvskg – like I do every Friday. Ask a question there and I'll do my best to answer it.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) July 29, 2022
The timing of the test comes after Mosseri recently announced Instagram would walk back its unpopular full-screen interface. The company had been testing the redesign since mid-June, only to find that most people didn’t like it. “For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” Mosseri told Platformer last week. Among the most vocal detractors of the redesign were photographers who found the new interface would overlay captions on top of their images, obscuring part of their work in the process. Instagram’s latest test would suggest the company still intends to move towards a more TikTok-like experience.