Instagram breaks out of its square mold

By Kevin Lee

For all the fun Instagram brings to smartphone photography, it sure has a lot of rules but at least you won't need to bother with uploading only square images anymore.

Starting now Instagram will allow you to share photos and videos in their original portrait or landscape orientation. Up until now the square format was first introduced as an homage to Polaroid instant film, but it mostly ended up being an annoying limitation in the digital age.

Because Instagram would only accept media that fit its square template, users were forced to pad out their images with large boarders if they ever wanted to fit a wider or taller image. With the new update, you'll be able to share a wide panorama or a photo that capture the height of Freedom Tower in all its splendor.

By removing the aspect ratio requirement, this means Instagram can also be an more effective advertisement platform. For starters, Star Wars was able to release a new piece of exclusive footage on Instagram now that it can properly show widescreen format video.

The Instagram update is available now and will download automatically to users' devices through the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.