Great news for all you Instagrammers out there!!! Instagram
has decided it's not cool to be a square!
As of Thursday August 27th 2015, Instagram has
relaxed their rule on photo uploads being in a square format as reported in the
article “Instagram images
no longer all square”, published 28 August 2015, BBC News.
 |
They declared their love for change in an Instagram blog post aptly entitled “Thinking
Outside the Square: Support for Landscape and Portrait Formats on Instagram”.
Many users who live on Instagram can rejoice, as they no
longer need to use third-party apps such as InstaFit to crop or adjust their photos to Instagram’s square
golden rule as noted in the article “Instagram
Goes Rectangular”, published 27 August 2015 by Cat ZakrZeweski, Wall Street Journal.
This change not only applies to images but to videos as
well, which will no longer need to be clipped at the ends, but shown in all their
glory, be it 4:3, 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio as noted in “Instagram
Isn't Only Square Photos Anymore”, published 8/27/15 by Alissa Walker, Gizmodo.
This doesn’t mean the clean feel of your Instagram feed will
be disrupted; you' still see previews of your images in the usual centered
square format. The difference will be noticeable when you click on the images
and it expands into its original uploaded format.
Now you can upload photos in either Portrait or landscape
modes, a win for many who've complained over the years over this rather silly
restriction on creative freedom. Or is it more a case of appealing to
advertisers and the potential of increased commerce by Christmas?
Instagram changes
Square format for Video and Images - How Instagram's change pleases advertisers
and users alike
Alas, it's really about commerce.
Advertisers are interested in throwing more money at
Facebook owned Instagram to do advertising as per a previous Instagram blog post in June 2015
entitled
Makes sense, being as they're clocking some 300 million Active
Monthly users back in December 2014 as reported in my blog article
entitled “Instagram's
300 Million Active Monthly Users – Teenagers and Millennials Selfie Trend
boosts Facebook's Advertising Revenue while Chasing Pinterest and Tumblr”.
The pressure to please advertisers must have been very hard
to resist. Still, I'm glad that this'll be benefitting both advertisers and
users alike albeit I'm far from being pleased.
Instagram still has no API that allows you to upload
pictures in bulk either from your smartphone or on your desktop. My gut feeling
tells me that this is what this change from being a square is really all about!
Instagram and Bulk
Image and Video Uploading - Why pleasing Advertisers by Black Friday means Bulk
Uploading is coming
Personally, dear reader, I think Instagram plans to
introduce bulk Uploading by Black Friday in November 2015, just in time for
Christmas!
Back in March 2015, a young developer named Caleb Benn had
developed a US$4.99 App called Uploader
for Instagram.
This App allows Apple Mac users to upload images from their
Apple Mac desktop to their Instagram account without having to install
BlueStacks as noted in the article “Post
photos from your Mac with Uploader for Instagram”, published March 23, 2015
by Matt Elliott, CNET News.
However, Instagram wasn't having any of that and by April
2015 declared that his company, Anobot LLC, had to remove the App as making
modifications to their API was illegal.
Good thing he's stayed under the radar, making his app
available only to Apple Mac users via their Mac App Store; he’s already made
US$6000 before he was asked to shut it down as reported in the article Teen
rakes in $6,000 on “Uploader
for Instagram app, told to shut down [Updated]”, published Apr 4, 2015 by
Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica.
Since then I've not heard of a replacement for the Uploader for Instagram from Instagram.
Even stranger is that fact that copycat Apps such as Up
– Uploader for Instagram have appeared on the Mac App Store!
But with advertisers possibly wanting to use Instagram as a
storefront, requiring the bulk uploading of images, an API for a Bulk Image and
Video Upload must be in the works.
Instagram Change a
precursor to Bulk Uploading – Get Ready for Instagram Shopping
This change from square to anything-goes uploading may
actually be a necessary precursor to test out how advertisers and users react
before rolling out bulk uploading built into Instagram straight from your Apple
Mac, Windows phone or Camera roll on your smartphone.
I personally think this’ll occur and I’ve already added “Instagram” to my Google alerts as
explained in my Geezam blog article
entitled “Google
Alerts Diamond in the Rough coming to Google+ to deliver Technology News”.
I suspect Instagram Shopping online, possibly structured
similarly to Pinterest’s Buy Buttons and “Buyable Pins” for advertisers as
described in my blog
article entitled “Pinterest
launches Buy Button - Why @Pinterest “Buyable Pins” will work thanks to
Confessions of a Shopaholic” may be coming by November 2015, just in time
for Black Friday and the Christmas Holiday!!
Here’s the link:
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