In a somewhat surprising move today, Instagram has allowed users to not only share photos in square posts but they can now share posts in both portrait and landscape orientation. My first thought was “No, don’t change the uniqueness of the platform’, but after scrolling through my Instagram feed several times, I feel that this will be a win for the users as they are not just constrained to the square format. Plus, think about why you view Instagram. I go to see beautiful images of this amazing world that we live in and now not only will I be able to see a small portion of a ballpark like Yankee Stadium but a panoramic view of it, which is even better.
I do feel that this adjustment was made in response to users publishing videos on the platform, which is probably not more than 15% of the posts. In a statement that Instagram released today, they said that 1 in 5 photo and video posts are not in the square format. Another adjustment, that I believe we will see, is if you share your Instagram photo to your Facebook account, the photo will appear in all of its beauty instead of an awkward square that may have cropped some of your friends out that you wanted in the photo. Now, I did see some Instagram posts in my feed today that had white bars on the top and bottom of the photo. I don’t know if a landscape photo was squared off or something else, but it is worth monitoring for a little bit.
All in all, this is a great addition to the platform and should enhance the user experience. What are your thoughts about Instragram’s changes? How do you see users adjusting to posting photos in a portrait or landscape orientation?
