Instagram 101
How To: Disable Instagram's Creepy Activity Status Feature
Instagram updated its iOS and Android apps recently with an "Activity Status" indicator. This status allows your friends to see when you are currently active and when you were last active on Instagram. The problem is, Instagram was pretty quiet about this update, so many of you have it enabled without realizing it. Fortunately, it's simple to turn off.
Instagram 101: How to Follow Hashtags & Curate Your Feed
Hashtags are the backbone of Instagram. They connect photos from users all around the world and give visibility to users who don't have many followers. Now, Instagram has added more functionality to this indispensable tool, and this new feature lets you follow hashtags in your main feed right alongside all the pics and videos you see already from people or companies you follow.
Instagram 101: How to Stop Stories from Being Archived Automatically
A new stories archive feature appeared in the version 25 update for Instagram on both Android and iOS. This means you no longer need to save stories to your phone for later viewing, if you like doing that, but it also means all those stories are saved to your Instagram account whether you want them to be or not.
Instagram 101: How to Add Story Highlights to Your Profile
Instagram stories are a great way to share your day-to-day experiences with your followers. However, it can be disappointing to see them go after 24 hours, especially if you shared something really special. Now, Instagram has a way for you and your followers to relive those great stories you've created with a new feature called Story Highlights.
Instagram 101: How to Share Directly to WhatsApp on Android or iPhone
WhatsApp is a great app to keep in touch with friends and family across phone brands and countries, but sharing a post on Instagram hasn't always been as easy as it should have been considering Facebook owns both companies. Now, whether you have Android or iOS, all it takes is a few taps.
Instagram 101: How to Share Posts & Stories to All Your Close Friends' Feeds Only
Instagram is a great platform to share photos and videos with the world, but sharing with smaller groups is near impossible. You can directly message photos, stories, or post links to friends, but that only works for one person at a time. To share your content with a small group of people you care about at the same time, you'll have to use the new "Close Friends" list.
Instagram 101: How to Archive All Your Stories Automatically for Easy Access Later
If you're familiar with Instagram Stories, you know that you can download your story to your iPhone or Android device for offline viewing. Those downloaded stories can easily get lost, and Instagram is finally doing something to keep that from happening with a new archive option for stories, similar to the regular posts archive.
Instagram 101: How to Add Animated GIFs to Your Stories
If you've ever made an Instagram story, you probably know you can add stickers to your stories. These stickers are interactive but, like real stickers, they don't move ... until now. In a Jan. 23 update to the app, more action can be added to your stories with animated GIF stickers.
Instagram 101: How to Add #Hashtags & @Account Tags to Your Bio
Your Instagram bio could always be used to link to other websites or profiles or just to show off your witty personality. Now, you also have the ability to use this section to tag other Instagram accounts as well as add tappable hashtags. Whether you want to link out to your best friend, company, or the latest trend in your city — if it has a profile name or tag, it can be in your bio.
Instagram 101: How to Add a Link in Your Story
For the longest time, the only clickable link you could throw up on Instagram was in your profile's bio, and that's still true for a lot of users. The only way to add a clickable link aside from the aforementioned one is in an Instagram story, where users checking out your story would swipe up to load the webpage before going back to finish your story.
Instagram 101: How to Unarchive Posts to Make Them Visible to Other Users Again
In mid-2017, Instagram added the ability to archive posts you've previously shared so that only you could see them going forward. As easy as it is to archive one of your Instagram photos or videos, it can be just as easy to forget how to unarchive it so others can see it again in all its glory.
How To: Video or Audio Chat in Instagram Direct Messages for Quick Calls with One or More Users
The app that started as simply a photo-sharing social media platform has expanded to encompass so much more than that. Between live videos, stories, chat, and animated stickers, Instagram is more than the sum of its pictures. Now, there's a new feature to add to that list for Android and iOS — video and audio calls.
Instagram 101: How to Use Type Mode for Colorful Text-Only Stories
Thanks to a bold new Instagram feature, you can now add text-only updates inside your stories with creative fonts and different style backgrounds — no camera needed. It's similar to Facebook's short status updates with colored backgrounds but with a lot more customization.
Instagram 101: How to Natively Regram Other Posts on Your Feed Without Leaving the App
You can retweet on Twitter, and you can reblog on Tumblr, but you cannot regram on Instagram. Until now, that is. For years, third-party apps have made it their business to help Instagram users share content from other users. With some new developments, Instagram looks to render those apps obsolete by adding a native regram button to the official Instagram application.
Instagram 101: How to Add Guests to Live Video Streams
Going live on Instagram is a fun way to interact with your followers. It lets you forgo the usual meticulous editing and framing in exchange for giving your friends and fans a glimpse into your real, unfiltered life. Now, your followers don't need to be separate from that experience, with a new update that will let you invite viewers to join in on your live videos.
Instagram 101: How to Zoom In & Out in Instagram Stories
Zooming in and out within Instagram Stories is a good way to take your videos to the next level. Whatever a next level is. Sometimes I just run out of words to describe how fun using Instagram is, so for today, I got "next level," which means whatever you want it to mean.
Instagram 101: How to Upload Live Photos as Instagram Videos & Stories
I wanted to post a Live Photo to Instagram of me in front of that donut that got eaten next to the CVS on Houston St. in New York, between Mott and Mulberry. The only problem is that Live Photos aren't supported on Instagram, so I couldn't just tap and post it to my feed without it becoming a regular still image. Luckily, there is an awesome workaround.
Instagram 101: Clear Your Search History So You Never See Your Ex's Suggested User Face Again
I thought eventually that my ex's Instagram account would magically clear from my "Suggested" search history. It's been six months now, and I'm sorry, babe, but enough is enough. It's time to clear out your very cute face. (On Instagram, of course.)
Instagram 101: How to Access & Manage Hidden Filters
I've possibly been really out of it for a long time not to have realized that Instagram has a bunch of hidden filters. Clarendon seems to be by number one filter for pics and videos, but maybe that's exactly what I've been doing wrong.
Instagram 101: How to Track & Manage Your Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the most important marketing tools available to you on Instagram. Although, it's hard to know which hashtags are working for you or not. You may think #fun is a good one to use but is it really? Okay, yeah, it's a popular one. But that doesn't mean it's the right one for you to use.