Some of the users may have noticed that Instagram is testing a new vertical grid display on user profiles. It’s a complete switch from the traditional square-shaped thumbnail images.
As you can see from the above example shared by marketing expert Lindsey Gamble some users are already seeing this display. This new profile grid display is rectangular in shape and better suited for new formats like Reels.
From the looks of it, Instagram is shifting to this format just because of Reels. In fact, it is the Reels grid that we used to see in the Reels tab, now it is translated to the main feed where all your posts reside.
And it looks like the new variation is coming to all users pretty soon. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri also explained this in his most recent Q and A.
Here is what he said.
“We’re actually testing a vertical grid, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, for your profile, instead of squares. Now, squares are from way back in the day when you could only upload square photos to Instagram. And I know this can be annoying for some of you who really spend a lot of time curating and making sure everything lines up, but I would really like to do better by the content [creators of] today. And the vast majority of what is uploaded to Instagram today is vertical; it’s either 4:3 in a photo or 9:16 in a video, and cropping it down to a square is pretty brutal, so I’m hoping we can figure out a way to manage this transition.”
This update makes sense as noted by Mosseri. However, it would require you to change your approach towards your IG profile presentation.
It looks like the platform is aligning itself around video content, in alignment with the usage shifts.
