Instagram is testing a new option that would enable users to re-arrange their profile photo grid, formatting their previously posted images into any order of their choice.

As you can see in the example below, posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, the new ‘Edit Grid’ option would be displayed in your profile settings, enabling you to re-arrange your profile gallery as you choose, regardless of when each was posted.

Which could be an interesting consideration, providing another way to put specific focus on the IG posts that you want to showcase to visitors.

Along the same lines, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently pointed to a possible ‘pinned post’ option for profiles, which would enable users to select certain posts that they want to showcase at the top of their grid.

The capacity to entirely re-arrange the order of your posts takes this even further, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Instagram actually does decide to go ahead with it, given the fundamental change to the platform’s long-standing ordering and display process.

Instagram seems increasingly willing to experiment with its main feed and profile options, which in some ways aligns with user requests, while it may also relate to people using their main feed less than ever, with video posts – specifically Reels – now driving the majority of Instagram engagement growth.

Mosseri has also noted that video will increasingly be Instagram’s focus, along with messaging, and as such, it seems that, eventually, the main feed, as we know it, will be de-emphasised, in order to better connect users to the app’s video content formats instead.

If we had to make a prediction, it would be that Instagram will shift to a full-screen Stories/Reels main feed display instead, moving away from the traditional static post feed entirely, and with that in mind, it would lessen Instagram’s hesitance in messing with the traditional post format – because if they’re going to move away from it soon anyway, why not try new things first?

Re-arranging your profile display is another element in this, and with the increasing push towards video, Instagram seems more willing to try out different ideas, as it gradually transitions to entirely new focus displays anyway.

There’s no word on whether this will ever be rolled out, along with post pinning, but again, it does seem likely that Instagram will try things out in the coming months. That could make it easier to showcase your best posts – and as social media expert Matt Navarra notes, if you make those multi-post, linking images, becoming a larger, connected visual on your profile, this could be a great addition for your process.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how this one develops…

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