Instagram just rolled out support for 3:4 aspect ratio photos, and honestly, it’s about time.

Here’s the deal: you can now post photos in 3:4 format without any cropping drama. Before this update, your carefully composed shots were butchered to fit Instagram’s rigid formats. Adam Mosseri put it perfectly in a recent Threads post: photos will now “appear just exactly as you shot it.”

Most phone cameras default to a 3:4 ratio. Think about it: every time you take a photo on your iPhone or Android, you’re probably shooting in 3:4. Then you’d upload it to Instagram and watch in horror as the platform chopped off important parts of the image to make it square or fit their 4:5 rectangle format. Now, Instagram’s latest update means no more sacrificing your artistic vision to Instagram’s formatting constraints.

But this change isn’t happening in a vacuum. Earlier this year, Instagram also ditched the iconic square profile grid in favor of rectangles. Why? Because Mosseri admitted that “most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation.” Translation: finally admits that forcing square formats in a vertical-phone world was… not brilliant.

Still, if you’re a brand or creator focusing on maximizing reach, this update probably won’t change your life. Video remains king, and Reels are still the golden ticket to the algorithm.

In a nutshell: Will the 3:4 ratio support bring back the golden age of Instagram photography? Probably not. But at least now, when you do post photos, they’ll actually look the way you wanted them to.

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