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Showing posts from May, 2025

Instagram isn’t just for square photos anymore

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Instagram now supports photos that have a 3:4 aspect ratio, meaning that when you upload a photo with that ratio, “it’ll now appear just exactly as you shot it,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri says in a Threads post . He also notes that “almost every phone camera defaults to” that format. An image from Instagram’s broadcast channel shows how the change makes a difference. You can already post images with a rectangular aspect ratio of 4:5, but with 3:4, your photo won’t be cropped at the ends. 3:4 photos are supported with single-photo uploads and with carousels, according to the channel. If you want, you can still post photos with a square or 4:5 aspect ratio. The change follows Instagram’s move in January to make profile grids feature rectangles instead of squares. “At this point, most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation,” Mosseri said at the time. * This article was originally published here

Google says Instagram fixed a battery drain issue on Android

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If you’ve been having unusual battery drain issues on your Pixel phone lately, Instagram might be to blame. In a new support post , Google says that Instagram has updated its app to address the issue. The fix comes in Instagram version 382.0.0.49.84, which you can grab from Google Play now. If you don’t see the option to update, it could be that you’ve already got it. You can check by long-pressing the Instagram app, tapping “App info,” then scrolling to the bottom to look for the version number.  It looks like Instagram may have been responsible for complaints about battery drain on Pixel devices since a Pixel software update earlier this month. 9to5Google reports that, when asked about the battery drain issue, Google pointed to the support post announcing the Instagram update. The outlet wrote in mid-May that the issue seemed to impact every Pixel model that got the May update, from the Pixel 6 through the Pixel 9. It’s not clear whether other Android phones were hit ...

3D Instagram photos are coming to Meta Quest headsets

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Meta is beginning to test showing 3D photos on Instagram if you’re looking at your feed on a Meta Quest VR headset. “Thanks to our AI view synthesis algorithms, we can transform the existing photos that show up in Instagram feed pixel by pixel – no fancy 3D cameras required,” Meta says in a blog post . “That means flat photos that weren’t originally captured in 3D will automatically be converted into an immersive format that gives 2D images a sense of depth when you view them on Quest.” The test starts this week. “Not everyone will have access to 3D Instagram photos on Quest – and even if you’re in the test group, you may not see it right away,” Meta says. And it’s not the first time Meta has dabbled with 3D photos; the company rolled out a 3D photo feature for Facebook in 2018 .  The test of 3D photos in Instagram is being introduced as part of Meta Quest’s v77 update, which includes a bunch of other features. One notable one, also in testing, is Navigator, which Met...

Threads was originally going to live inside the Instagram app

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Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is on the stand today in Meta’s antitrust trial . In trying to prove the social network is not a monopoly, he shared that the Threads app could have been just a feature inside of Instagram. Meta was working on built-in Threads features for Instagram first to compete with Twitter, which pioneered text-first social media apps. But Mosseri says the team made the “very contentious decision internally” to move the features out of Instagram. Meta’s team, according to Mosseri, found having Instagram host text posts could be confusing to users since the Twitter-like model is entirely different, where replies and original posts can be equally prominent. Comparatively, on Instagram, and other apps like YouTube and TikTok, replies are subordinated to original posts. Still, Threads is heavily linked to Instagram. You need an Instagram account to use it, and your profile on both platforms link back to each other. Instagram also adds Threads posts inside of ...