The bottom row of an app is expensive real estate.
Instagram demonstrated that in November 2020 when it redesigned its main navigation around two strategic products: Reels and Shop.
The company gave Reels the center position and put Shop in the bottom navigation. The familiar Compose button and Activity heart were moved to the upper-right corner instead.
Routine actions moved so growth products could move in
Before the redesign, posting new content and checking activity occupied highly visible positions in the primary navigation.
TechCrunch documented the new layout in detail: Reels took the center button, Shop replaced the Activity tab, and Compose and Activity were relocated to the top of the home screen.
Instagram redesign puts Reels and Shop tabs on the home screen
Instagram was unusually open about why the new products mattered. Its announcement described an explosion in short-form video and online shopping and said the Shop tab would connect users with brands, creators and products.
That is not automatically sinister. Navigation should change when user behavior changes.
But a redesign also reveals what the platform wants users to notice.
The center button was no longer the action for creating something. It was the action for consuming Reels.
The heart was no longer where it had been. Shopping was.
Layout can steer behavior without blocking anything
Instagram did not delete posting or notifications.
That is what makes interface incentives interesting. A company does not need to prohibit a task to make another task more prominent.
Every extra reach, relocation or unfamiliar icon changes the friction slightly. Put one feature directly under the thumb and move another to a corner, and the product is making a recommendation before the user consciously chooses anything.
In this case, the commercial connection was unusually visible. Instagram Shop included product discovery and, for eligible sellers, in-app checkout. Instagram later introduced advertising in the Shop tab as well.
The redesign was eventually partially reversed
In 2023, Instagram removed the Shop tab from the bottom navigation and returned Compose to the center position. Reels remained prominent but lost the central slot.
Instagram is removing the Shop tab, moving Reels from the center spot in design overhaul next month
That reversal is useful evidence because it shows interface priorities are not neutral or permanent. They are product decisions that can be tested, pushed, rejected and changed again.
A monetization-first redesign does not need to make the app unusable.
It only needs to make the company’s next business priority easier to reach than the thing the user opened the app to do.