Instagram Redesigns Home Page, Adds Reels and Shop Tabs

Instagram has introduced changes to its home screen, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced in a blog post. Reels and Shops tabs were added to the bottom of the navigation bar, making it the app's first redesign since June 2015.

The Reels tab will lead users to short videos similar to those on TikTok. The Shop tab will contain personalised recommendations, editor's picks curated by the @shop channel, commercial videos and new product collections.

Mosseri explained in the post that the company considers Reels “to be a kind of a stage” for creative and talented users looking for an audience. The head of Instagram pointed out that users enjoy culture change, stressing that the biggest risk for the company is to become irrelevant.

“We’re excited about the new design and believe it gives the app a much-needed refresh, while staying true to our core value of simplicity,” Mosseri wrote in his blog.

As for the shopping addition, it coincides with Instagram's recent shift to developing more revenue-oriented products. In 2015, the company opened its photo feed to advertising that brought around $2 billion in revenue. This time, launching a dedicated shopping page with personalised product recommendations can bring even more.

“These changes reflect shifts we’re seeing from people, both in how they use the product but also how they push culture forward on Instagram: rise of creators, explosion of video, and an acceleration of online shopping. We want to adapt to these shifts while keeping things simple," wrote Mosseri in his post in September.

On Wednesday, users reported the app was not working after being updated to the newest version. The errors began occurring to both IOS and Android users, and the most common error was the timeline showing a completely blank screen when users tried to refresh it.