Instagram is shoving the Reels button on users’ faces

Instagram pushed the Reels live almost instantly after the TikTok ban in India. It made its way to the US and many other markets recently. Now, in a bid to force users to watch it, the company is introducing a new Reels button in the bottom navigation bar, which replaces the Explore button.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the new layout is already live for some Indian users. The Reels button will directly take users to a random Reels video, after which you can swipe to see another video. Further, the Explore button has been moved to the top, situated next to the icon for Direct Messages.

Moreover, Instagram has not made any official announcement yet about the same. The feature is not directly available in the latest update of Instagram. Fortunately, I haven’t received it yet, and I’d prefer it to stay that way.

Prakhar Khanna

I’ve been associated with the tech industry since 2014 when I built my first blog. I’ve worked with Digit, one of India’s largest tech publications. As of now, I’m working as a News Editor at Pocketnow, where I get paid to use and write about cutting-edge tech. You can reach out to me at [email protected]