News
Instagram Tops 3B Users And Pushes New Reels & UI Tweaks
After hitting the significant milestone, the Meta-owned platform is adding new Reels controls and a navigation bar redesign.
Instagram has crossed 3 billion monthly users, making it Meta’s third app to reach the milestone after Facebook and WhatsApp. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed the figure this week, underlining Meta’s dominance in social platforms.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of that massive user count. Three billion monthly logins is more than a third of the global population. With Meta’s apps blocked in China and many regions still offline, the figure suggests over half of the connected world uses Instagram.
Reels In Focus
To mark the occasion, Instagram is testing a feature that shows which topics the Reels algorithm believes you’re interested in. Users can add, remove, or mute categories to shape their feed. Most may leave the system untouched, but it offers a manual lever for those who want it.
Instagram is also shifting its navigation. Direct Messages moves down to the bottom bar alongside Home and Reels, while the create button shifts to the top left and search nudges right. The redesign reflects where users spend most of their time.
Also Read: How To Find & Cancel Pending Instagram Requests
Next Moves
Reels is already the app’s most used feature. Instagram has tested defaulting to Reels in some regions and on iPad, though for now the main feed still opens first. A full switch feels only a matter of time.
At 3 billion users, the platform is more than Meta’s third giant app — it’s another example of the company scaling compulsive behavior to a global audience.
News
LUVED Is A New Curated Preloved Marketplace For The UAE
Sellers keep 100 percent of every sale and AI can build a listing in five seconds — though the app’s smartest tools are still coming.
Secondhand shopping has become mainstream in the UAE, but the experience is still scattered across resale sites, social media and informal group chats. LUVED, a mobile-first marketplace that launched in Dubai this month, is betting it can pull that activity into one place — and that the thing buyers and sellers actually want is not more inventory, but trust.
The app trades in what it calls circular luxury: preloved fashion and lifestyle pieces across men’s, women’s and children’s categories, bought, sold or given away peer to peer. Its main pitch is economics, with sellers keeping 100 percent of every sale under a zero-commission, fast payout model, while buyers are promised vetted pieces at lower prices.
Where LUVED is staking its reputation is verification. Sellers pass a KYC check, and items run through a two-layer authentication system powered by Entrupy that pairs instant AI screening with human expert review for high-value pieces. Authenticity certificates travel with each item, payments sit in escrow, and a buyer-protection package the company calls The Safety Net adds a 48-hour return window and dispute resolution. Door-to-door logistics removes the in-person meetups that make most resale deals awkward.
An in-app assistant called Luvbot — offering selling insights and demand-based recommendations — is soon to be introduced to the platform. Other features include autofill and dynamic pricing that lets users build a listing in as little as five seconds from three photos, plus a swipe-based feed, story-style drops and in-app chat in English and Arabic. Finally, a gifting layer, Luved & Gifted, lets users pass items to others inside the app rather than sell them.
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“After moving to Dubai, I saw how difficult it was to sell or even give things away,” says founder and CEO Shaima Sibtain. The friction is real, and so is the competition. In resale, trust is won transaction by transaction — and that is the test LUVED has set itself.
The app is live on the App Store now, with Google Play to follow. The company also plans to expand across the region, which will be the real test for a marketplace staking everything on trust.
