Instagram is Testing a Full-Screen Main Feed

A full-screen Instagram feed has already been rumored several times, but now it’s a part of the official developer announcement. Instagram started testing a brand new main feed UI that displays the entire content flow in a stunning full-screen UI. 

All-in-One

As we found from app researchers’ screenshots from the experimental version of the app, the upcoming feed UI will include not only the regular posts but also all the stories and reels in one and the same place. Stories will be displayed at the bottom of the feed and have a swipeable frame bar, while all the videos will come with progress bars. 

The first impression is that this UI offers a much more logical way to browse through Instagram content and align the platform with the market-leading TikTok UI trends. The updated feed is powered by a new algorithm that selects posts based on the history of your interaction with other posts. 

Similar to the Tiktok feed that displays all the videos on a full screen, the new Instagram feed will make it much easier for the app to track your interactions with content, including likes, depth of watch, replays, returns, etc. All these interactions will now be tracked for all posts individually to get more data about their performance. This way, developers hope to replicate TikTok’s algorithm and make the feed as personalized and addictive as TikTok’s. The improvement also makes a lot of sense considering the fact that Reels and Stories have long been the main engagement source on the platform. 

Better Late Than Never

Although Instagram's attempt to benefit from the TikTok UI trend is great, the company has been very slow in hacking the algorithm. There’s only a raw back-end prototype of the feature right now. It took over 2 years for the company to reach this stage! Do want your Instagram feed to be more like TikTok’s feed or do you like the current version? Join the chat below to tell us about it and share the news with friends.