Instagram’s Long Overdue Support For 1080x1080 Resolution Photos Finally Arrives

With as much hype as there has been surrounding high resolutions - from "Retina" laptops to 4K TVs -- it's almost embarrassing that a large number of online services still severely throttle the overall resolution of a user's uploaded photos. Imgur is a great example of a service that doesn't suffer too much in this regard, but unlike services like Instagram, Facebook, or even Google+, there isn't too much of a social element.

On the topic of Instagram, many of its users have been appalled for some time that their images have been capped at 640x640, and it's easy to understand why. Even modest smartphones today tend to have much higher resolution displays, and a 640x640 image looks quite small on 1080p and especially 1440p monitors. So isn't it about time to update that restriction?

Well, as it turns out, it seems the company is going to be updating it, offering a brand-new cap of 1080x1080. Admittedly, that can still be considered modest given today's high-end resolutions, but it's leaps and bounds better than 640x640, which would have been more suitable ten years ago.

According to The Verge, Instagram began rolling out 1080x1080 support to its iOS and Android apps last week, meaning that right now, you should have access. Unfortunately, the desktop app hasn't been yet updated, which almost isn't even a surprise. Even more unfortunate, there's no tentative date for an update, as a spokesperson says that mobile is the main focus right now.