Instagram Is Testing A Full-Screen, Scrollable Post And Reel Display

Instagram has published an early test of a new, full-screen iteration of its main feed display that makes IG content look a lot more like TikTok, taking advantage of current usage patterns. This isn't surprising, given that the revised UI was first seen in testing in March, with reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi sharing this screenshot.

Instagram has already stated that it is attempting to align its content feed around Reels, given the format's popularity, and Meta recently stated that Reels account for more than 20% of people's Instagram time. As a result, it seems like a no-brainer for Instagram to continue on this path – though TechCrunch points out that Stories would still be at the top of the screen in this new layout, with the Stories bar still positioned along the top of the app (albeit it's not visible in the above image).

As seen in the video above, Stories are integrated into the full-screen display format, with a frame indicator along the bottom of Stories postings prompting the user to swipe left to access the rest of the material.

The only major difficulty is that Instagram generates money via Stories ads, which are full-screen advertisements that appear in between Stories. That's probably why Instagram isn't looking to merge everything just yet - but as its monetization mechanisms improve, you can bet that this is where things are headed, with all Instagram content flowing through one full-screen, scrollable feed of static posts, Reels, and Stories.

It hasn't arrived yet, but it will, and this new experiment is the first step toward the 'Gram's next incarnation