What you need to know
- Instagram is testing a new "TikTok-like" full-screen feed.
- The move is said to put video "front and center" in the new layout and comes on the heels of a major rebrand of the IGTV service.
- Both still images and videos will be incorporated into the new full-screen layout.
No matter how you feel about the current Instagram app's layout, the latest UI update is going to change your mind about it. Instagram is currently testing a new full-screen feed that is said to "bring video more front and center." If that sounds a lot like TikTok to you, then you aren't alone.
A Meta spokesperson told The Verge that it wants its users to get more involved in making original video content and this latest redesign could help make video consumption more attractive for users. While many have been clamoring for a chronological feed so it's easy to follow a proper timeline, this latest redesign might be the antithesis of those hopes. Instagram is only testing the new interface, though, so there's no telling if and when it'll roll out to users on a wider scale.
Meta says that all photo and video content will be displayed in full-screen mode and that all the expected buttons — be it search, reels, likes, and the comment button (to name a few) — will still be in the same place they are today. Stories will continue to be at the top of a user's feed, but it's not clear how easy it will be to quickly scroll to the top and view those stories if posts take up the entire screen.
Maybe the full-screen feed, viewable in the above photo, will at least fix the app on foldable phones. Currently, on some of the best foldable phones, Instagram cuts off the top and bottom of each post in order to scale the app to the larger, wider displays of foldables. We've reached out to Meta to ask about this specific instance and will update the article if we hear back.
Instagram retired its standalone Boomerag and Hyerlapse apps back in March to pull all video content under one roof — that's simply called Instagram Video — and recently improved DMs to help clean up the platform and make using common features quicker and easier.
