Instagram has limited its users and advertisers up until these days. There were only few options on which people can upload their photos, particularly on the layout of the photos. Much to users’ delight, its latest update now supports landscape and portrait formats, ending the restriction towards the imaginative minds of Instagram users. Both available on iOS and Android, users of the mobile media sharing platform can now post with city skylines, beach horizons, group photos and even full selfie portraits. Simply tap the format icon to adjust the orientation of your image to portrait or landscape. The full-sized version of the post can be seen by everyone on the timeline but on the profile grid, the posts will appear as if they were cropped to a square to maintain the organized impression.

The change is an answer to users’ petition for the platform to be open to flexible content. According to Instagram, over 20 percent of users’ photos on the platform are not in the square format. It only added to the users’ dismay in updating their timelines, most of them make use of third party photo editing apps to cramp their portrait and landscape photos to the square restriction.

With hundreds of millions of users, Instagram isn’t just the much favoured photo app for many people, but also an essential component for marketers to share their brands. Campaigns of advertisers and marketers in Instagram have been limited to the square orientation, forcing them to adjust shots or even crop entire parts of photos, but now they can enjoy this update to their own brands as well. For them, this amplified the range of possibilities of mobile marketing and on how they can market their products to users’ timelines.

People will receive the complete vision of the created images provided to their feed by these various brands. Videos are also part of the new features as well! 16:9 widescreen snap shot is now available to bring out additional movielike impressions. With apps like Snapchat, Twitter and Youtube, content marketing for video have risen to be one of the most important strategies brands can use in their campaigns. Accordingly, this new support for wide-screen video is a welcome feature for business across social media, citing the already increasing competition in digital marketing, particularly in mobile marketing. New filters are also added, bringing new promise to the selection of beautifying features of the platform, and more are coming soon. Users and businesses alike can adjust the intensity of filters to their own liking.

These aren’t just the new things Instagram will incorporate this year. Recently, new types of ads have been introduced while taking huge lengths to maintain its imaginative and austere character. “Later this year, we will continue to connect businesses to the right people through expanded targeting options,” Instagram said. Businesses will be given better capabilities to convey their message with mobile marketing and use effective mobile strategies to reach their audience. The advertisers will be equipped with ways to reach people based on demographics and interests. Improvements on Instagram advertising through Instagram Ads API and Facebook ad buying interfaces are also underway. It’s the result of Instagram’s commitment to create better features to aid advertisers in their objectives to empower businesses large and small.

To guide your brand to the latest changes and features of digital marketing platforms like Instagram and Facebook, contact IH Digital Singapore here and we’ll help you create social media marketing strategies to scale your brand.