A Social Media Manager's Guide to 2025’s Instagram Trends
Let’s take a look back at all the Trends that Got Us through the Year
If you found it hard to keep up with this year’s Instagram updates, you’re not going crazy. We saw Instagram make the most significant changes yet. Let’s break down the top 10 changes that have shaped your feed:
1. GONE ARE THE DAYS OF 30+ HASHTAGS
Instagram is cutting the hashtag limit from 30 to 3! Tell your aunt and her friends on that vacation in Cancun to cut themselves off after 3 drinks and 3 hashtags! Three is the new magic number.
2. COMPETITIVE INSIGHTS FEATURE
Compare how your account is doing to other profiles like yours. You can compare:
Follower growth
Posting Frequency
Reels
And Boosted Posts!
With the capability to track up 10 other accounts, you’ll never fall behind again.
3. Shareable Insights
If you’re a creator, you can now export your insights as a PDF from the edits app. This is HUGE for KPI Fridays!
4. Pin THAT Comment
After years of asking, Instagram answered the call. You can now pin comments to your post.
5. New Performance Metrics for Reels
Instagram started giving creators more insight to your reels so you know which parts resonated with your audience best. View rate has been replaced with skip rate, helping you track where users lost interest. You can also track at what point users liked your clip. This feature has also been implemented for carousels.
6. LINK IN BIO DOES NOT HURT YOUR REACH!
Important information if you’re trying to move sales.
Starting in July, people could find your Instagram posts in Google Search results. Woohoo!
8. New DM Features
If you haven’t already noticed, your voice messages now include text transcription. You may also have noticed it’s easier to follow people in group chats thanks to the “quick follow” feature. We love it!
9. Now It’s Standard, but it Was Once New
The 4:5 layout! Instagram is more than squares, it’s also rectangles. What do you think about it?
10. Instagram Dropped their Editing App
Meta released an Instagram editing app at the top of 2025 so you can easily create content formatted for the app. They’ve since released several updates. Read more about Edits and what you can create here.
Conclusion
From reels to insights, Instagram has seen a lot of change over the 2025, and we’re sure to see more changes in the coming year. What updates would you like to see in 2026? Let us know in the comments.
And if you want to stay updated on trends, make sure you subscribe to the STAR Report. We’ll keep you up to date on the upcoming trends and ever changing performance indicators. So click subscribe and welcome the new year with us!
