Here’s something interesting…

It seems that Instagram is testing a new automated "Collages" feature, which will use images from your device’s Camera Roll to create collages that you can share within the app.

Some Instagram users are receiving a new notification in the app encouraging them to create a custom collage from their images, which they can then share in their Instagram chats.

Here’s another glimpse of the prompt as it appears within the Instagram chat interface (via Lindsey Gamble):

Currently, the feature isn't operational, so we don't have a clear idea of what these collages will look like. However, it's likely that this will be another way for Meta to incorporate generative AI, using your photos as input to create collages, with each image artistically arranged within a single frame.

Would this be beneficial?

As Haberman points out, collages have already gained popularity on Pinterest, especially among younger users who enjoy these more artistic visual formats. 

Pinterest even developed a separate app to facilitate collage creation and is now integrating collages into its advertising tools, reflecting the popularity of these creations.

The distinction here is that Pinterest's collages focus on products, allowing them to capture a wider variety of interests and creative aspects. This approach might not translate as effectively when using photos from your camera roll. However, considering the growing popularity of collage images, it could still be a successful feature for Instagram, offering an easier way to share multiple images at once in chats.

That said, we still can't assess the output since it's not available yet.

We’ve reached out to Instagram for more details on this experiment and will update this post if and when we receive a response.