News

Instagram Has Introduced A Visual Refresh

To help its users put the new font to good use, Instagram has also introduced fullscreen marketing layouts, which are clearly inspired by TikTok.

Published

4 years ago

May 26, 2022

David Morelo

Instagram

Instagram’s visual identity, including its logo, has evolved dramatically since the photo and video sharing social networking service launched in 2010. On Monday, Instagram introduced the latest visual refresh, complete with a brand-new font called Instagram Sans. The refresh is supposed to embrace continued evolution by giving existing brand elements new energy and purpose.

The Instagram gradient background, which consists of five colors — Princeton Orange (#F58529), Jasmine (#FEDA77), Vivid Cerise (#DD2A7B), Grape (#8134AF), and Iris (#515BD4) — has been brought to life using an innovative 3D modeling process that makes it feel as if it were lit from within.

“The concept is that the gradient feels like it’s made of light, so it feels illuminated. And it has a kind of a sense of depth to it,” says 3D digital artist and motion designer Rose Pilkington.

The biggest star of the show, however, is the new font, which was designed with Instagram’s heritage in mind. The typeface’s collection includes multiple global scripts (including Arabic, Thai, and Japanese), and it can be described as a contemporary remix of grotesque and geometric styles.

instagram visual refresh font 1

“Details like sheared terminals that suggest the flick of a human hand, unexpected quirks seen in the ‘Q’ and the interior teardrop of the ‘a’ add a friendly personality,” writes Instagram about the new font.

instagram visual refresh font 2

To help its users put the new font to good use, Instagram has also introduced fullscreen marketing layouts, which are clearly inspired by TikTok. The new layouts are supposed to put content at the center, and they reflect the latest usage trends.

Also Read: 12 Arab Women Dominating Instagram In 2023

So far, the visual refresh has received a mixed response, with some users and observers praising it for being both recognizable and future-oriented, and others criticizing it for being unnecessary and self-indulgent. What are your thoughts on the refreshed look?

News

Instagram Now Lets You Tune Its Algorithm, But There’s One Big Catch

The new controls promise users “agency” over their feed, but asking to see more from accounts you actually follow returns an error.

Published

3 days ago

June 11, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Instagram has expanded its algorithm personalization feature to the main feed, letting users specify which topics they want surfaced more or less often in recommendations.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri framed the change as a matter of user control. “I believe it’s in our best interest as a business to empower people to shape Instagram into something that works for them, and that people should be able to have a meaningful amount of agency over the products they spend so much time in,” he wrote on Threads.

Though it turns out that agency has limits. The controls only accept interest-based topics, such as “rescue dogs” or “parenting humor”. Requesting “posts from people I follow” returns no results, which is obviously a sore point for creators whose posts rarely reach their own audiences. Mosseri conceded the tension: “Who you follow used to be a meaningful tool people had for shaping their own experience, and as recommendations took over the main feed that tool quietly stopped working”.

Also Read: How To Find & Cancel Pending Instagram Requests

Instagram credits large language models for making its algorithms legible enough to personalize, and says it is “actively working on supporting requests for people, different moods or vibes, content types, and more” – potentially leading to a fully “bespoke” version of the app.