Instagram Is Finally Letting Users Zoom In on Photos and Videos

Instagram is finally giving users a way to get a closer look at photos and videos.

The Facebook-owned app today announced users can now zoom in on still and moving images, a feature that will likely be a welcome addition to the platform's more than 500 million monthly users.

So far, the feature is only open to those with the iOS version of the app. However, in a post on Instagram, the company said zooming will be available for Android users in "the coming weeks."

"Starting today, you can pinch to zoom on photos and videos in feed, on profiles and on Explore," according to the caption on a video showing how to zoom. "Dive into an adorable puppy's smile or into every detail of your friend's new shirt."

However, zooming is less of a pinch and more of a pull; users have to press on an area of the photo or video they want to focus on and separate their fingers to activate the feature. While zooming is pretty easy, doing so does reveal pixels on many photos. There's also no way of leaving it zoomed in—letting go instantly returns the picture to its normal size.

 

Starting today, you can pinch to zoom on photos and videos in feed, on profiles and on Explore. Dive into an adorable puppy's smile or into every detail of your friend's new shirt. Over the past six months, you've seen many exciting changes come to Instagram, from a new icon to longer videos and even a new way to share everyday moments with Instagram Stories. And as things change, we're still focused on improving the core parts of Instagram. Zoom is available today for Instagram on iOS. Zoom will be available on Android in the coming weeks.

A video posted by Instagram (@instagram) on Aug 31, 2016 at 8:00am PDT