To make Instagram a more immersive experience for mobile users, the platform is currently testing taller videos and photos.
“We know the future of photos and the future of video is mobile-first,” said Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, in a recent post. “They are 9 by 16. They are immersive,” Mosseri described the new format of feed photos and videos.
This means that Instagram’s content presentation will start looking a lot more like TikTok’s in that images will be full screen and vertical.
Mosseri says the change is to advance Instagram in a way that meets how users spend time on the platform, which is mobile-first.
Instagram also plans to ramp up content recommendations to users on the home page. Mosseri says the goal is to show “things we think you might love but you might not have heard of yet.”
He also says that users will have more control over the experience, but details on how have not yet been released.