Instagram Rolls Out New 'Reels-First' App Experience For Select Indian Users — What's Changed

Meta's Instagram social media app is considering switching up its interface by showing users the "reels" first, according to an article from Business Standard on Monday. It involves automatically opening the reels feed, showing users short-form videos created by a myriad of other people which they swipe up and down on to navigate.

Meta is testing this new user interface (UI) on select users in India, having already implemented the UI design on its Instagram app for the iPad. The app was launched on Sep. 3, 2025, for the Apple device.

In the current setup, the reels icon is accessed second from the right on the bottom tab displaying other features like account settings, profile access and the "search" feature. Icons for direct messages and likes from other users are displayed at the top right hand side, with Instagram stories (disappearing posts and videos that are only up for 24 hours) showing up underneath them.

Instagram is planning to shift the direct messaging icon on the bottom tab, second to the left and moving the reels icon on to the right hand side, second from the right. Outside of UI, Instagram will also have a 'Following' tab which will facilitate users to customise their content feed.

Users can decide who they want to see content from on the basis of three categories — 'All': which is the default view, showing posts and reels from accounts the users follows; 'Friends: which only shows posts and reels from accounts who follow the user back and 'Latest': which displays the latest posts from accounts followed by the user in chronological order.

According to Reuters, 20% of the time users spend is on the "reels" feature, which was popularised by TikTok, a short form video app.