Instagram Tests a New Iteration of Suggested Reels Feature

Lindsey Gamble / Instagram Suggested Reels 

Instagram has started testing a new iteration of its Suggested Reels feature that appears between posts in the feed. Instead of the typical carousel of recommended Reels, it now displays them in a 2x2 grid format.

Why It Matters: With this iteration, Suggested Reels become more prominent, occupying the majority of the screen. This allows viewers to see all the recommended Reels at once, as opposed to scrolling horizontally through the previous carousel format.

By displaying more content simultaneously and in a more visually dominant way, Instagram could encourage users to engage with the recommended Reels rather than simply scrolling past them to the next post in their feed.

This test also highlights a growing trend among social media platforms of adopting content display formats similar to Pinterest. For instance, Amazon recently updated its Inspire shoppable feed, which features creator content, to adopt a comparable layout.