Instagram set out to modernize a familiar signature. Instead, its first wordmark overhaul in a decade has left users squinting at what many insist reads as “Instagzam.”

The redesign replaces the platform’s long-standing cursive lettering with a hybrid of print and script. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said the old wordmark “hadn’t changed in 10 years” and called the new version “cleaner and more modern,” while arguing it retained references to the original’s “simplicity and craft.”¹

But the immediate reaction has exposed the risk in tinkering with a logo people recognize at a glance. Commenters on Instagram and Threads quickly focused on the ambiguous lettering, particularly the treatment of the “r,” and some mourned the disappearance of the now-iconic cursive style. The Verge described the update as a “strange mix of half-cursive half-print” that is “somehow less legible than its predecessor.”¹

The criticism sharpened into a broader complaint about contemporary tech branding. One account of the launch argued that “cleaner and more modern” too often means a logo has become “boring and more like everyone else’s branding.”¹ Mosseri appeared to anticipate the backlash, posting the change on Threads to see what the “hot takes might be.”¹

A second critique framed the wordmark as an accidental emblem of the AI era. Ars Technica said its first reaction was: “Why does it say Instagzam?”² The outlet stressed it was not alleging Instagram used AI to create the design. Rather, it argued the awkward letter shapes, spacing and cutoff forms resemble the almost-real text frequently produced in generated images.

That distinction is central to the backlash: Instagram calls the change a considered return to its roots, while critics see a polished corporate refresh that has traded instant recognition for confusion. As a functional wordmark, Ars Technica concluded, it has “legibility and identity problems.”²