Instagram’s vertical profile grids may be a nightmare for some users

It has been ages since Instagram has made it clear that short format video is its focus-area, not the photos the platform was once known for. Most of the content uploaded on Instagram today, is videos. However, some aspects of the app’s user interface still haven’t caught up with this. That may not be the case for too long.

Instagram’s profile page, which is known for its square slots to showcase your most recent posts on smartphones, doesn’t look great if all your recent content is 9:16 videos and photos. To fix this, Instagram is testing out a new look for the profile page – one with a vertical grid for the posts.

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Instagram head Adam Mosseri mentions that “squares are from way back in the day when you can only upload square photos to Instagram,” a limitation that was only in effect until 2015. The new layout, already being spotted by some in the wild, is currently in limited testing, for both Android phones and iPhones.

Why the vertical profile page is a bad idea for many users

If most users post in the vertical format today, what could go wrong with forcing such an implementation? Well, the answer is everything, for some profiles.

For years, Instagram profiles have leveraged the uniform, border-less, square layout for some creative mosaic grid artworks. These could be anything from pictures split in six or nine parts, entire ad campaigns, or something similar.

If Instagram makes a vertical grid the default way to showcase profiles, users who have implemented such techniques may potentially lose years of creative effort overnight. Hiding these posts and reuploading them to fit the new layout could be an option – but it would still be a mammoth task, and one that would negate all the engagement these profiles have build over time on the older posts via likes and comments.

Even for those who don’t use the mosaic layout, but continue to post their photos in the square aspect ratio, the new grid could mean chunky black bars above and under all such pictures, adding a lot of wasted space to said profiles.

The change is in the testing phase right now, which means Instagram is monitoring user feedback. So, whether it will be rigidly implemented in the future is still up in the air. However, with most of today’s content curated for the vertical format, don’t be surprised if your meticulously prepared squares turn into vertical rectangles in the near future.