News
Nearly All Saudi Gen Z & Millennials Will Be AR Users By 2025
A new white paper by Snap Inc and others reveals how immersive tech will transform the retail industry in Saudi Arabia.
Snap Inc, the owner of Snapchat, has partnered with PwC Middle East and Retail Leaders Circle (RLC) to commission a white paper entitled, “The shift towards immersive shopping: New opportunities for retailers in KSA”.
The study (which you can find here) focuses on the evolution of the typical Saudi consumer and how shoppers now desire more immersive retail experiences. The paper points out that businesses must embrace digital and hyper-responsive AR experiences as the backbone of their marketing strategies rather than simply adding to traditional methods.
Right now, a significant gap exists between the perception of AI by consumers and brands, with 94% of brands viewing AR as being primarily for fun, whereas only 53% of consumers view it the same way.
Not only that, by 2025, it is estimated that around 75% of people worldwide will be frequent AR users. And almost all of the Gen Z and Millennial population of Saudi Arabia will use the technology frequently.
As Saudi shoppers demand ever-higher levels of convenience, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a leading role in the future of retail, enabling hyper-personalization, real-time behavioral dat, and analytics to offer the right promotions and tailored messages to customers in real time.
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“Over the years, we have seen AR evolve from being just a mode of entertainment and self-expression to delivering true value for consumers and businesses. AR is already transforming the industry and is slated to metamorphose every shopper’s journey in the near future. Today, as we ponder the future of retail, it’s time to be agile and adapt wholeheartedly to the latest in commerce,” says Abdulla Alhammadi, Regional Business Lead for KSA Market, Snap Inc.
In a world where online shopping is focused more on product rather than the consumer, Snap Inc’s report shows us a retail future driven by customer self-expression. According to Snap Inc, AR can “showcase products, push creative boundaries, drive real sales, and help reduce returns.” The company also highlights that “250 million people already engage with AR on Snapchat each day, and Snapchatters now play with AR more than 6 billion times a day on average”.
News
Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”
Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.
Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.
“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.
Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.
The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.
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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.
Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.
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