Instagram is going to make its in-app navigation much simpler after years of confusing changes designed to push various products like Instagram Shop and Reels. The company says, starting in February, it will return the Compose button-the plus sign "+"-to the front and center of the navigation bar at the bottom of the app, and it will remove the Shop tab entirely.

So Reels will now move to the right side of Compose. Thus, it loses the best position.

The previously introduced changes that had positioned Reels over Compose had been pretty controversial for the Instagram users since it looked like the company was nudging them to use all its new products at the cost of the user experience as a whole. The company had first moved the Reels tab to the center of the navigation bar back in 2020, when it had also replaced the much-loved Activity tab with the Shop tab instead. The Compose button and Activity were also then moved to the top right of the home screen, which made them harder to find. Throughout all these years, Instagram always had stated that these changes were useful to the access users obtain in Instagram's "broader range of offerings".
But in recent months, Instagram has faced intense scrutiny with how far from the foundation it has moved its origin mission.

For example, last year, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner added their voices to this complaint as Jenner posted a picture on her Instagram calling on the company to "make Instagram Instagram again," and to "stop trying to be tiktok." Kim then followed in that thought by echoing the same on her post to her Stories. They had this enormous Reels push, while at the same time becoming frustrated at seeing their feed change where the video content and content that Instagram picked as postable appeared with greater propensity, leaving the filtered shots that were famous.

And perhaps most importantly, the ploy worked, grabbing enough attention from Instagram to merit head Adam Mosseri in response to the criticism in order to assure users: "Photos are still absolutely part of the priority of our app." He also attacked frustration with the growing sea of Recommended posts that inundate users' feeds-only increasing in number as it looks to build out its very own version of TikTok's For You page.

Of course, this redesign coming will not tackle all the users' complaints - moving the buttons around does not mean that the feed will change itself - but at least for the users who want just to post their photos, things will get a little bit simpler as before. This may give the users subtle encouragement to return to posting photos because of reprioritizing the Compose button.

There were rumors that Instagram is heading in this direction already when a test last fall began to remove the tab for the Instagram Shop off the home screens of a few users, relegating it to Settings. And at the time, Instagram confirmed it was only a "small experiment" with very few users. However, The Information had reported in an internal memo, Instagram cited that the change happened because of a shift in company priorities.

The company says today the elimination of the Shop tab does not necessarily signal an end to shopping on Instagram, however.

"You will still be able to create and manage your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that create the most value for people and businesses across Feed, Stories, Reels, ads, and more," a spokesperson said.

According to Instagram, this navigation change will take a while before touching screens on the end of February.