• by Colin Kirkland , January 20, 2025

Instagram has updated the grid on all user profiles -- similar to TikTok’s home feed -- altering one of the social-media platform’s original aesthetic features.

Thumbnail images now have a more vertically aligned look, compared to the square image display users have been accustomed to for the past 15 years.

Instagram launched its grid update on the same day TikTok sent announcements to its 170 million users in the U.S. explaining that its service is temporarily unavailable due to a law banning the app in the region. 

Social-media platforms have been preparing for this possibility for months and Instagram is no exception. Over the past week, the Meta-owned app has been working hard to set itself up as the main alternative to TikTok, extending its short-form video feature Reels to three minutes in length (a move also made by YouTube), and launching a new mobile video editing tool, which features “a full suite of creative tools.”

According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, the shift to a more vertical grid aligns with how people are using the app, and is the first step in further altering users’ grids. 

“We started with the tall grid because most photos and videos that are uploaded to Instagram at this point are vertical and rectangles do a better job showing off those photos and videos,” Mosseri wrote on Threads. “That said, I know some of you spend a lot of time tweaking your grids and this blew all of that up, so we’re going to improve the ability to customize those thumbnails to make it easier to get back to a place you’re happy with.”

In addition, Instagram is planning to move highlights into the grid in a way that doesn’t disturb users’ aesthetic construction, while also making it possible for users to post directly to their grid as to avoid the home feed entirely.

“In order to maintain creator control we’re building a tool so you can re-order your entire grid and make it whatever you want,” Mosseri explains, effectively fulfilling one of the most requested app features to date. 

While some of these features have been in the works for months, they are all likely a response to the U.S. federal government’s earliest concerns over potential national security risks posed by TikTok’s alleged connection to the Chinese government.  

However, as competing social media companies continue to launch TikTok-ified updates to their platforms, hoping to persuade mass user migration, TikTok has already begun restoring service for U.S. users following a series of back-and-forth statements between the company and president-elect Donald Trump.