Come February, users will get to see Instagram undergo a significant UI overhaul. The social media platform is primarily bringing changes to the navigation of Instagram to make it easier for users to connect and share. This simplification of its in-app navigation includes the return of the button to create a post to the front and center of its main navigation bar, as well as removing the Shop tab entirely.
This development comes after Instagram began testing the redesign last year – back in September, to be precise.
The place of the Shop tab will be taken over by the Reels button, which is currently the cynosure of every eye and lose its prime sport at the front and center of the navigation bar. In a Reel on Monday, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said that the design overhaul will refocus its priorities to “bring people together over what they love” and further simplify the app. Once the changes take place, users will see the Home tab on the left, followed by Search, and then the button to create posts is at the center. It is followed by the Reels and Profile tabs at the right.
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The return of the button to create posts to the center comes as Instagram’s answer to the controversies that have dogged its heels ever since it relocated the Reels tab to the middle of the navigation bar. That was back in 2020 – at that time, Instagram said that this would make it easier for users to access its “expanded suite of products” – but multiple high-profile users have criticized the popular photo-sharing site for overpromoting Reels and aggressively pushing it to be at the center of attention.
Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, for example, urged Instagram to “stop trying to be like TikTok” and “make Instagram Instagram again” – Jenner posted the image, and Kardashian echoes similar sentiments in her Stories. It came after the platform proposed to bring a full-screen experience to accommodate video and larger photos.
The recent design overhaul, thankfully, does not impede the further use of Instagram as a destination for business and shopping. The company said that users and brands can continue to set up and run their shops on Instagram on the platform. In an article posted to its support page, the company noted that it continued to invest in “shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across the feed, stories, reels, ads, and more.”
