This petition was made in response to the platform wide dismay at the recent change of Instagram profile grids to portrait posts as of January 2025.

As of recent years, the square format of Instagram profile grids has become one of the most iconic parts of the platform, setting it apart from other social media and earning a fond place in many users' hearts. Many users, especially artists, content creators and businesses, have painstakingly formatted their content to fit neatly within the square preview on their profile. Now that this update has been made, there is no longer a way to post landscape images as well. This is highly restrictive and disappointing compared to the previous grid layout system, which had a square preview appearance but accommodated to square, portrait AND landscape images once clicked into the specific post.

While the team behind Instagram has shared that the change was made after a recent trend of images posted mainly being in portrait, this update has robbed users of the ability to decide for themselves how their posts look. 

This petition would like to push for the reversal of this update, changing the default profile grid layout for all profiles back to square. If not, an option for users to choose their own profile layout would be an equally good solution.

Speaking on behalf of everybody on Instagram who has come to love the square format and documented our memories over the years in squares, we sincerely request that Instagram revert the change. As a content creator and artist myself, my profile grid that I have curated to display my art in squares has also been affected, and I know hundreds of thousands of others share my frustration.

Furthermore, we would also like to request that the Instagram platform keeps its Highlight function the way it is. Highlights are a fun way for users to store their story memories without having to dedicate a whole post to it on their profile, and countless users have scrapbooked endless beloved moments through Highlights. Instagram has become an online journal of sorts  for those wishing to collate their cherished memories on the Internet, and removing this deeply loved feature would be a massive detriment.

To the team behind Instagram, we thank you for your time and hope you hear our plea, alongside the feedback given by many others. as for the Instagram users viewing this that agree with our sentiment, we highly encourage you to share this petition around.