Instagram just got a new look with redesigned app and icon

Popular image sharing social network, Instagram has ditched the old logo in favour of an updated icon and app design featuring a simple and white user interface to improve the photo and video sharing experience of users.

The new design rolled out recently, based on the previous app icon, but comes with flat logos, simple camera and gradient colours. The new design focuses more on photos and videos, without changing the way the apps is navigated.

According to the head of design at Instagram, Ian Spalter, the refreshed user interface of the app is quite simple, and features a more consistent design to get better photos and videos.

"As a part of our process, we also asked people at the company to draw the Instagram icon from memory in 5 seconds. Almost all of them drew the rainbow, lens, and viewfinder," he said. "With this insight, we decided to translate these elements into a more modern app icon that strikes a balance between recognition and versatility."

The Android and iOS versions of the Instagram app have no new features and all the buttons, menu and other options remain in the same place. The only notable difference is the black and blue bars for the Instagram menu are no longer present. There are now white backgrounds with black text and buttons.

With the new design already out, users appear to be slightly disappointed with the changes. Not only Instagram, other tech majors such as Uber, Airbnb and Google have changed their respective app icons featuring tweaked interface, while leaving their users unhappy, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking about the new UI, Spalter said, "While the icon is a colorful doorway into the Instagram app, once inside the app, we believe the color should come directly from the community's photos and videos. We stripped the color and noise from surfaces where people's content should take center stage, and boosted color on other surfaces like sign up flows and home screens".

Instagram has also updated the icon for other apps such as Layout, Boomerang and Hyperlapse with a unified look. "We carried the gradient through each icon, and designed them on the same grid to make the system feel cohesive. We also updated the Layout and Boomerang icons to better represent what the apps help you create — a collection of photos, or a mini video that loops forward and backward," Spalter added.