Instagram announced on Monday that it would put its Create button back in the center of its main navigation bar and remove the Shop tab.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Reel Monday the move would “simplify” the app and refocus its priorities to “bring people together over what they love.” The new order of the navigation bar will be Home, Search, Create, Reels and Profile. The proposed changes will take effect in February.
A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Instagram, did not respond to a request for comment.
While the dedicated Shop tab will disappear, Mosseri said in his Reel that “you’ll still be able to shop on Feed, in Stories, in Reels and in ads.” Instagram also stated on its help page that it would “continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more.”
The Shop tab, along with the Reels tab, was introduced to the in-app navigation bar in 2020, according to TechCrunch. The decision to redesign the navigation bar to include these tabs instead of the Create or Activity functions was controversial, sparking backlash from users who felt the platform was prioritizing businesses and influencers.
The Reels tab, which is currently in the center position of the navigation bar, will move a space to accommodate the Create tab.
In recent months, high-profile users like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian have called out Instagram for overpromoting Reels. Following a proposed design change to introduce a full-screen experience to accommodate video and larger photos, Jenner and Kardashian reposted a photo that urged Instagram to “stop trying to be like TikTok.”
As a result, Instagram announced it would roll back this change, but it would continue its push into short-form video.