Instagram gets a design refresh in ways nobody will care about

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Instagram logo on phone
Instagram logo on phone (Image credit: Joe Maring / iMore)

What you need to know

  • Instagram has made some tweaks to the way it looks.
  • A new app icon is brighter and more colorful than ever.
  • Instagram users will see a new font being used.

Instagram has announced a new design refresh that includes new a new font, updated logo, and more. But none of this is going to come to your iPad because it still doesn't get an app to call its own.

Instagram announced the changes in a new blog post that outlined three changes that it thinks we should all be aware of, starting with a more colorful app icon.

  • The gradient is reimagined with vibrant colors to make it feel illuminated and alive, and to signal moments of discovery.
  • Our new typeface, Instagram Sans, is designed with our heritage in mind and includes multiple global scripts.
  • Our new layout and design system is content-forward and celebrates creativity, simplicity and self-expression.

That new app icon is definitely on the bright side. Some people, myself included, had already noticed the icon change a few days ago — now it's all official. Snark aside, it's now one of the best iPhone icons you're likely to see in terms of being instantly recognizable.

In terms of a new font, welcome to Instagram Sans.

Instagram Sans is inspired by the design elements our community sees every day — our logo and wordmark. From billboards to websites, our new typeface highlights our distinct identity.Across surfaces, from our marketing campaigns to our websites, Instagram Sans helps us showcase a distinct identity.

Finally, Instagram (again) reminds us that it is determined to put content and creators first via new marketing layouts. They "showcase full-screen imagery, reference the in-app experience and celebrate the creativity we see from our community every day" so yay for that.

But again, there's still no Instagram iPad app so, really, does any of this matter? Does an icon getting a refresh really happen if there are no iPad users to see it?

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.