Instagram goes high-def just in time for summer sunsets

Those sunset photos uploaded to Instagram will finally look as breath-taking as the caption claims they are. The photo-fawning app said yesterday it’s upgrading the resolution it stores pictures within the app from 640 x 640 pixels to the high definition resolution of 1080 x 1080.

It’s a welcome change for a few reasons. First, Instagram is finally realizing that its users snap photos with higher quality cameras that come standard on new phones, like the iPhone 6 Plus. Also, screen resolutions have dramatically improved, so making the picture quality correspond to that makes sense.

Larger images are also good business for third party printing services like Instaprint or Shutterfly because shopper’s photos will finally look decent stretched out on a canvas.

Instagram confirmed the change to the Verge, who first broke the story. A spokesperson told the website that 1080 resolution pictures are “gradually rolling out” to iOS and Android apps last week. People will only see the better quality photos on the app as Instagram has “no plans to share on web.”

Photo via Flickr

More in Media

In Graphic Detail: The scale of the challenge facing publishers, politicians eager to damage Google’s adland dominance

Last year was a blowout ad revenue year for Google, despite challenges from several quarters.

Why Walmart is basically a tech company now

The retail giant joined the Nasdaq exchange, also home to technology companies like Amazon, in December.

The Athletic invests in live blogs, video to insulate sports coverage from AI scraping

As the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics collide, The Athletic is leaning into live blogs and video to keeps fans locked in, and AI bots at bay.