While Instagram recently introduced Views as its main performance metric, as well as expanded carousels to 20 media, Meta's social network is now preparing its users for a new display of the main grid on profiles, which should adopt a vertical format. We'll tell you more!
Instagram is testing the generalization of vertical grids
On Instagram, a notable change could come to disturb many creators. Indeed, the social network is thinking of abandoning the square format display of publications on profile grids, to adopt the vertical format. In reality, the grid format of Reels would become more or less the default format for displaying media on the main feed of users. This change is not a new fad from Instagram: in fact, from 2022, insider Alessandro Paluzzi had spotted the tests of the social network on other grid formats. A public test then took place in 2023. But it seems that 2024 will be the year of the big deployment, with some profiles already benefiting from this new display.
We're currently testing a vertical grid for your profile, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, instead of squares, Adam Mosseri said.
Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, explained the reasons for this during a recent question-and-answer session: “Squares date back to a time when you could only upload square photos to Instagram.” Indeed, many creators have now adopted the vertical format, particularly with the explosion of the short video format, driven both by Instagram with its Stories and Reels, but largely democratized by TikTok.
What does the new main grid view look like on Instagram?
However, a large number of creators on Instagram are carefully studying how to organize their grid on their profile. Many concepts have been created, most often manually and with a lot of ingenuity, to offer users a particular display of the media on a profile. We also revealed 10 original grids on Instagram in a dedicated article. A potential problem that Adam Mosseri and his teams are well aware of. “I know this might be annoying for some of you who spend a lot of time organizing and making sure everything is aligned, but I really wish I could do better for today's content creators.”explains the man at the head of Instagram.
The vast majority of what's posted on Instagram today is vertical; it's either 4:3 for a photo or 9:16 for a video, and the square crop is pretty brutal, so I'm hoping we can find a way to handle that transition.
But what will this new vertical display look like? Digital marketing expert Lindsey Gamble has published on her blog some examples of profiles on which this evolution is already visible (see image below).
This is a first glimpse of what should be deployed on all profiles in the coming months. Although this change is not final, and it is possible that the formula finally deployed could be slightly different, it seems that Instagram users have to prepare to see the vertical display become widespread on their profile.
