Just when you think you’ve mastered a social media platform, an update occurs. These updates can be a new layout, new features or the dreaded removal of a feature you know and love. Staying on top of those changes is vital to your digital marketing success. Below are 5 Instagram updates that have been announced / rumoured for 2025.
4:5 Profile Grids
We have already started to see this ratio rolled out onto new accounts we have launched and it’s only a matter of time before it reaches every account. If your posts were 1:1 Instagram will use the zoom feature to adapt them to 4:5, so if your posts contain a lot of text overlay it may be cut off a bit, however this is better than adding black trim to the top and bottom ruining the look and feel of a well crafted Instagram account. Be sure to start using a 4:5 ratio now so that you’re ahead of the curve.
You can now add music to your profile
Sometimes your music taste can say a lot about you? Remember the days of MSN messenger when you could set music to when your crush came online or setting music on your MySpace profile? You can now set music on your Instagram profile. This is a useful new feature for brands that have a jingle or sound. Remember to update the song profile if you customize it to fit the time of year.
A trial feature is rolling out for reels
A truly revolutionary feature is rolling out. Trial Reels will let you post reels to the general public but here is the catch, it will not show to your followers. The idea is that you’ll be able to obtain feedback on how the content is resonating prior to “releasing” it to your core audience. This can represent a way to create an “organic” ad, promoting your brand to non-followers. This is a great way to grow your following without spending money for Meta Ads.
Try it out yourself! Use some of your most popular content as your first few trial reels and evaluate from there. If you see an uptick in followers, consider leveraging trial reels even more within your content strategy to create content specific for non-followers. This is a great way to showcase your brand and business.
Commenting on Stories
At the tail end of 2024, users have been starting to comment on stories of who they follow. The good news is that if you wish you can turn that functionality off entirely if you so wish. By default, only users who are followed back by the story creator can comment, so it’s safe to say having negative comments is less likely. For brand protection though, it may be best to turn the feature off completely.
Highlight bubbles could be moving to the grid
When this rolls out, you’ll likely need to click a tab at the top of your profile to see your Story Highlights instead of them being automatically visible under your bio. Meta mentioned the reason for the change is to get content up above the fold when viewing a profile. The more content the user watches and engages with the better your metrics and Instagram’s pocket books.
These are the top 5 Instagram updates we’re watching out for this year, though there’s no doubt 2025 will throw us lots of additional curveballs in the social media space.Head spinning yet? If you need help planning an up-to-date, strategic content strategy for social media, extend a branch. We have a team of social media experts who’d love to geek out on your brand.
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