Pinch to Zoom: The Latest Instagram Update

Pinch to Zoom: The Latest Instagram Update

Double-check your focus on your photos, Instagrammers! The social platform has begun a slow rollout on its latest update: the ability to pinch and zoom on images. But is this update foreshadowing what's about to come?

It's not exactly something what we were asking for, but it is a cool new feature Instagram has introduced today. When scrolling through your feed and user's pages, all you'll have to do is press, hold, pinch, and zoom. This can be advantageous for those who have smaller subjects in their photos as opposed to the close-up images that tend to do better on Instagram. 

Does mean there will be an upgrade in photo resolution? Perhaps 2400 x 2400? It certainly could be in the works given that you can zoom into an already lower resolution 1200 x 1200 photo, which is their square-resolution currently.

Instagram's statement:

Starting today, you can pinch to zoom on photos and videos in feed, on profiles and on Explore. Dive into an adorable puppy’s smile or into every detail of your friend’s new shirt. Over the past six months, you’ve seen many exciting changes come to Instagram, from a new icon to longer videos and even a new way to share everyday moments with Instagram Stories. And as things change, we’re still focused on improving the core parts of Instagram. Zoom is available today for Instagram on iOS. Zoom will be available on Android in the coming weeks.

Other Updates

Other updates to note: with its recent release of Instagram Stories, the platform continues to mimic their competitor, Snapchat. Users creating content will now be able to zoom in by pressing their screen up and down like Snapchat. They will also be able to tap the screen to switch cameras on their phone.

What do you think about the update? Is this relevant to you? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Nick Pecori's picture

Nick Pecori is a Florida-based advertising photographer who has shot for clients Acer, Bealls, Shoe Carnival, the Florida Lottery, etc.

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5 Comments

Thank you for the news Nick, but ( now ) it's just a feature to zoom in to a compressed, bad quality image...

Which leads to the question, does this mean higher res photos are coming?

And I'm just here, sitting with Windows phone, waiting when I'll be able to upload videos :D

Ha! Favourite Tweet on the subject, so far:

@ChefResha
can ya'll ZOOM back to the time where photos loaded in chronological order??

Instagram says " Zoom will be available on Android in the coming weeks. ".

One day is definitely a short week.

I just tried to pinch to zoom in on a photo in Instagram using my Galaxy S7 and it worked!
Is it a feature that's rolling out to users over time?