Another week brings yet another Instagram change. Lately, it seems that if you become distracted for even a moment, Meta’s social network may suddenly undergo a new identity crisis, resulting in an updated design. Following changes to grid layout in the Feed, the new location for highlighted stories, and panoramic Reels in 5120×1080 format, we now have the redesign of its navigation menu.
A month ago, Instagram celebrated surpassing 3 billion users, and its CEO, Adam Mosseri, took this opportunity to announce forthcoming design changes intended to further improve the platform’s service. These modifications are focused primarily on giving greater prominence to Reels and DMs (direct messages), two sections whose usage has increased considerably, even surpassing the main Feed.
Specifically, Instagram’s new design involves the following changes: The navigation menu, previously located at the bottom of the screen, will shift from including the tabs “Home,” “Explore,” “Post,” “Reels,” and “Profile” to now featuring “Home,” “Reels”, “DMs,” “Explore,” and “Profile”. In this way, direct messages move from the top right corner to being part of this menu, and the option to post content is now relocated to the top left corner.
Furthermore, the option to switch tabs by swiping your finger across the screen, either from left to right or right to left depending on the direction you wish to take, has also been added.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)
A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)
Now, Instagram users have already begun to notice these changes, though in different ways. Within the Marketing4eCommerce team alone, there are examples covering all scenarios. For instance, I received a notification from Instagram offering me the chance to “try the new navigation before anyone else,” my colleague Noelia also received a notification but of a different nature, Carolina had the changes automatically enabled without being asked, and Rafa still has not been offered the change.
Personally, I saw the notification and, after experiencing the initial reluctance these Instagram changes usually provoke in me, I decided to click on “More information”. After reading about the update, I chose not to accept it. I know that I have likely only delayed the inevitable, but by now I am already accustomed to Instagram’s current layout, and my experiences with previous updates have shown me that it does take time for your muscle memory to adapt to not heading for the top right corner to open DMs when these are now in the bottom menu.
Moreover, in my view, this is not a modification that would provide me with any benefit if I were to accept it, nor would it harm me if I did not; it is merely a change, and there is not always a reason to embrace every change.
With respect to Noelia Fraguela, Content Manager at Marketing4eCommerce, she explains that in her case, she received the notification shown in the second image directly. Unlike myself, she did not have that initial preview of how the new menu would appear. However, her curiosity led her to accept the change and, ultimately, she is not particularly affected by it.
“I opened Instagram, this message appeared, and because I am curious, I chose to switch interfaces. I was not shown a preview of what it would look like; it simply notified me that it would change and that navigation was supposedly going to be made easier. I accepted, and I did not feel the change was that significant. In my experience, it neither improved nor worsened things for me; they simply changed the location of the buttons. It is like rearranging the furniture in a room—at first, it is disruptive, but you quickly get used to it.”
Someone who had no opportunity to choose was Carolina Muñiz, Content Creator at Marketing4eCommerce, who found that the new design had been applied following an app update. She was not convinced by Instagram’s decision. “Personally, it bothers me. When there are changes to the interface of a platform you have been using for years, the ‘muscle memory’ of the user is usually not taken into proper consideration. This happened with the Twitter redesign several years ago, and it will happen again elsewhere. Let me explain: Now when I want to make a post, I accidentally open the direct messages. And when I try to view Reels, I enter Explore instead. That makes the user experience much more… uncomfortable.
It is quite clear that Instagram clearly recognizes that direct messages are currently their most successful feature, and for this reason, the function has been given the “privileged” spot once occupied by posting posts. This is something that, as we see among younger generations, is now of secondary importance. Ask your 15-year-old cousin why they do not have a single photo on their profile, maybe you can solve this mystery for me as well.
And yes, I also preferred the square feed and the highlighted stories where they had always been. At least, so far, Mosseri has not changed that for me (thank goodness).”
And what about you, marketer? What do you think of this new Instagram design update?
Photo: Instagram
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