Instagram has announced that in addition to square posts — you can now share photos and videos in both portrait and landscape orientation on Instagram.
“Square format has been and always will be part of who we are,” the company wrote on their official blog. “That said, the visual story you’re trying to tell should always come first.” Until today, it hasn’t — users who wanted to share their work in its landscape or portrait formats have had to use third party programs to add white space to the edge of their photos or videos, lowering the overall resolution of the image.
Now, when choosing a photo or video, you can tap the format icon to adjust the orientation to portrait or landscape instead of square. Once you share the photo, the full-sized version of it will appear to all of your followers in feed in a beautiful, natural way. To keep the clean feel of your profile grid, your post will appear there as a center-cropped square.
It’s a simple change, but it means big things. In addition to giving Instagram users more creative freedom, it also makes the social network a better advertising platform.
To learn more about the changes in today’s update, check out the Instagram Help Center.
