Truly a Blue Monday, fitting the theme of Instagram’s drastic change over the weekend. A platform that is known to be about aesthetics, and its square posts, decided to ditch the square and announced the change of the profile grid to a rectangle layout (4:5).

Instagram is currently one of the most used social media platforms, especially for business content and advertising. This segment of users treats their aesthetics and posts as a serious way of communication with their audience – their content is well-thought-out and often interconnected. By taking such a significant step and altering what mattered most – a planned and cohesive feed – Instagram has gotten a strong reaction online.
The testing started in August 2024, and now in 2025, the update has officially been implemented. The update would not have been a problem if it had been properly announced and communicated. Instead, the decision has felt sudden, and many users were blindsided and now are scrambling to adapt – especially among designers, content creators, and anyone who prepares their Instagram feeds in advance. For years, users have relied on Instagram’s square grid to showcase their creativity, from perfectly aligned layouts, panoramas, and split images that stretch across multiple posts. The so-called “transitional pain”, as the CEO Adam Mosseri named the feedback from users, could have been reduced if Instagram had informed its community in advance. Offering tools to preview the new layout, sharing clear timelines, or involving users in the decision-making process could have eased the impact.

As TikTok faces political scrutiny and restrictions, Instagram appears eager to position itself as the go-to platform for creators and advertisers who are displaced by the ban. By prioritizing vertical content and reshaping its grid layout, Instagram could be angling itself to gain TikTok’s appeal and capture the audience that is searching for similar content. Ironically, the US lifted the ban within less than a day.
Instagram clearly struggles to differentiate itself from competitors. Another piece of evidence is back when the BeReal platform just surfaced and introduced the concept of using both the front and rear cameras of a smartphone to capture the moment, Instagram was fast to implement it.

For over a decade, the square grid was a design must, and users knew in which direction to think and create – which made Instagram stand out to the creators. According to CEO Adam Mosseri, the decision is meant to follow the trend of the focus on vertical content – photos and videos that better match our phone screens. But is this really progress, or just another sign of Instagram’s ongoing identity crisis?