Instagram Breaks Free From The Square

The biggest change since Instagram launched nearly 5 years ago. The photo sharing app has announced support for images in formats other than a square. It is a big risk to take given how the layout of Instagram has become iconic, so is it the right thing to do?

Square photos on Instagram has been the done thing, when you upload from your camera roll the app would previously force you to crop your photo into a desired square size that they wanted you to use. Now Instagram has announced that you will be able to upload photos in both landscape and portrait orientations too.

Instagram has been forced to accept that it is what the users want, while they would maybe prefer to keep it all square, external third party apps have allowed users to format and post photos in horizontal or vertical orientations before the official update.

As a result, one in five photos on many Instagram feeds are rectangular. Instagram have also applied this change to video too, so when you shoot and upload video content on Instagram you will have the choice of uploading it in portrait or landscape mode.

The latest version of the app also allows filters to be used on all video posts and video filters now come with variable intensities. The changes take effect from version 7.5 of the app, a new format button will be present in the app which will allow users to select portrait, landscape or square formats and those changes will then appear in the feed.

Stepping away from the square is in fact a long overdue change, it is about time that users were given the choice on how they want their content to be shown.