Social media giants TikTok and Instagram have been making headlines in recent days.

TikTok, after shutting down in the United States for approximately 12 hours, has returned for many users.

The platform attributed its comeback to President-elect Donald Trump, welcoming users back with a notification stating: “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”

The app became unusable for Americans late Saturday night, impacting over 170 million users. This followed the enactment of a Biden Administration law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to divest from the app or face a U.S. ban.

But Trump announced plans to issue an executive order following his inauguration to delay the enforcement of the law.

Within hours, access to TikTok’s app and website was restored for U.S. users.

Meanwhile, Instagram is transitioning from its iconic square grids to rectangular grids to align with the growing trend of vertical photos and videos.

Photos will now be displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the traditional 1:1 ratio.

This did not sit well with some users, who observed that the shift supposedly destroyed the profiles of their favorite celebrities.

"I know some of you really like your squares. And square photos are sort of the heritage of Instagram," said Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

"But at this point, most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation. And it just is a bummer to overly crop them. I know it's a change. I know it's a bit of a pain, but I think it's a transitional pain."

Acknowledging mixed feedback on the update, Mosseri outlined several profile-based features to ease the transition.

For one, future updates will allow users to arrange their profile grids and customize post thumbnails.

Instagram also extended the maximum length of Reels to three minutes, a significant increase from the previous 90-second limit. #