Instagram Makes More Than Just a Size Change

By Zachary Clark, Director of Business Development
08/28/2015

In case you missed it, Instagram now allows users to post full-size landscape and portrait photos removing the restriction photos be only square. In the early days of the app, Instagram went with only square photos to distinguish itself from the competition. But, as the app has grown and its user base exceed 300 million, they found that round pegs needed to fit in their square holes.

This decision changes the originality of the app because since it started, people associated square with Instagram. Apple even made a mode on their camera app to take a photo in a square. Places like Walgreens made special square photo printing so someone could print their Instagram art. Square became a huge deal in the photo world.

Square will still be the default for an Instagram post and I’ll go out on a limb and say that most of the photos will still be square (and overly filtered). But, Instagram is changing part of its core, and I love it.

Instagram found that 20% of uploaded photos had been modified to fit into a square frame by a third-party app. The company realized that their user base was frustrated and that it needed to change something, even if that something was essential to the company’s growth. This is a perfect example of an organization adapting to their customer base and being open to change as the market changes. Not many companies are like that and would continue to make their users stick round pegs into square holes.

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