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What Even Is Instagram Now?

Reece Rogers

created: Aug. 9, 2025, 9 a.m. | updated: Aug. 12, 2025, 9:32 p.m.

That’s exactly what scrolling through Instagram feels like right now—an ungodly morass of features stitched together. Instagram is having a full-blown identity crisis, and I’m exhausted. Mimicking features from other social media platforms and grafting them onto existing apps has long been the modus operandi for Meta, the owner of Instagram. Most notably, the platform added a map tool that lets your Instagram friends see your precise location every time you open the app. Instagram also just released its Friends Reels tab for users globally.

3 days, 22 hours ago: WIRED