Instagram may kill the shopping tab from its app next month

Social networking platform Instagram has announced that it will remove the shopping tab from the main bar at the bottom of the screen, starting next month. The Reels tab, which is currently present in the front and centre of the navigation bar, will replace the Shop tab.

Moreover, the button to create a new post will move down, reports The Verge. The relocation of different Instagram functionalities will likely change the experience, but since the Shopping tab was not widely rolled out, not everyone will be affected. For instance, the Instagram app in India has the Reels button at the centre, flanked by the Search & Explore button on the left and the Notifications button — denoted by a heart shape — on the right.

The company also said that shopping will still be a part of the platform even without its shortcut on the home feed. “You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more,” the company said in its support page.

In September last year, the company started testing a main feed without a shopping button and said it wanted to “simplify the Instagram experience” for users, the report said. Just like other apps, Instagram wanted its users to be able to shop for products without leaving the app, giving creators a new way to sell their items directly to customers. The Shopping tab currently is filled with personalised product recommendations, but The Information last year reported that the Shopping tab would eventually disappear from the main interface of the app.

Meanwhile, last month, Meta introduced new sharing features including ‘Notes’ on Instagram, that would help users to feel closer to the people they care about. Much like Facebook Status, Instagram currently lets users pen what they are thinking, instead of posting a photo, video, Story, or Reels. Since it is a text-based functionality, users can reply to someone’s Note using only text.

— Written with inputs from IANS