What Happened
After years of sticking with its signature square format for all posts, Instagram has finally added native support for photos and videos of other aspect ratios, allowing users to post vertical or horizontal posts without the unsightful margins created by third-party apps, which some used to employ in order to post uncropped photos. Brands such as New Belgium Brewing and Disney’s Star Wars were already spotted testing the new formats.
What Brands Should Do
While the loosened restriction on post format gives brands more creative freedom to deliver content without compromises, brands need to be mindful that Instagram grants much more screen space to vertical posts than horizontal ones. And given the inherent mobile nature of Instagram and that users tend to prefer a one-handed, vertical orientation, it’d be smart to choose the vertical over other formats in order to achieve maximum visual impact.
Source: AdWeek