Instagram is a staple social media app for most of us, but beyond scrolling through your newsfeed and uploading selfies, there are plenty of other things to do on Instagram.
While Instagram is easy to use, there are features, tools, and apps to help you get even more out of Instagram. These handy tips and tricks will help you discover more things to do on Instagram.
1. Get Post Notifications From People You Follow
If there’s an Instagram account whose posts you don’t want to miss, consider enabling notifications on the account. This will make sure that you never miss any of their Instagram activity.
There are two easy ways to turn on notifications. The first way is to head to the profile of a user that you’re following. Click the Following dropdown menu underneath their profile description, and then click Notifications. From there, you can toggle post, stories, and live video notifications on.
You can also turn on post notifications directly from a user’s post. Click on a post, press the three dots in the right hand corner of the screen, and then select Turn On Post Notifications. If you find the notifications overwhelming, you can always turn them off by following these same steps and selecting Turn Off Post Notifications.
2. Remove Tags of Yourself From Photos
Does one of your friends always tag you in unflattering photos or unwanted memes? Thankfully, there are two ways to get around this situation.
Head to the photo, and tap it to select your username. You’ll then see two options: Remove Me From Post and Hide From Profile. The Remove Me From Post option will remove the tag completely. If you don’t want to remove the tag, but you still want to hide it from the tagged photos section of your profile, then you should use the Hide From Profile option instead.
3. Clear Your Instagram Search History
Instagram has a wide variety of posts on it, and maybe you don’t want your friends to see that your searches were for “cats in hats,” or “hamsters of Instagram” (both of which are searches I highly recommend) or anything else that you might find embarrassing.
To clear your search history, navigate to your profile, choose the three bars in the top-right of the screen, and select Settings at the bottom of the slide-out menu. You can then select Security, which will bring you to a screen that says Clear Search History at the bottom. Select that option to rid yourself of all those awkward search terms.
Keep in mind that choosing this will prevent Instagram from auto-filling your common search terms, so be sure of your decision before confirming.
4. See Recent Instagram Posts You’ve Liked
If you want to find a photo that you’ve liked in the past, you don’t have to spend hours searching through your newsfeed or other people’s profiles.
Instead, simply go to your profile, click the three bars in the top-right of the screen, and then select Settings > Account > Posts You’ve Liked. This will open a feed composed of the 300 most recent posts you’ve liked, which you can then browse at your leisure.
5. Edit Your Instagram Posts Like a Pro
A lot of people are quick to throw on a photo filter and then upload their photo without making any other changes. While Instagram’s filters work wonders, you can make your photos even better by using Instagram’s extensive editing options—which include brightness, contrast, structure, warmth, and saturation.
To access these editing tools (and many others), select Edit at the bottom of the screen next to Filter.
6. Use Less Data While Using Instagram
Because Instagram automatically preloads photos and videos, it can quickly use up your data.
To limit the amount of data that Instagram uses, go to your profile, select the three bars in the top-right, choose the Settings option, tap Cellular Data Use and then toggle Data Saver mode on. You may find that photo and videos take longer to load, but your overall data use will decrease significantly.
7. Post From Multiple Instagram Accounts
Much like Twitter, you can link multiple Instagram accounts to one phone without constantly having to sign in and out.
To link a new Instagram account to your app, go to your profile, press the three bars in the top-right of the screen, and select Add Account. Instagram will then direct you to a screen where you can sign in to an existing account or create a new one.
8. Create Collages
Instagram has a linked app called Layout (available for iOS and Android) that allows you to seamlessly make collages and then upload them to Instagram or other social media sites. You can access Layout through its own app, or link to it through your Instagram app by pressing the collage button when selecting your photo to edit.
Once you have accessed Layout, you have several different collage options, all of which can be adjusted with regards to panel size and the order of your pictures. You can also choose to flip images, mirror images, and insert borders between your photos.
9. Make Your Instagram Posts More Interesting
Wonder how your friends post those short looping videos? Those were likely created using the Boomerang app (available for iOS and Android). This allows you to create a short, looping video that plays over and over again on your friends’ feeds. You should definitely take advantage of Boomerang, as it’s one of the most fun things to do on Instagram.
10. Find Related Hashtags to Use
The secret to Instagram success is using key hashtags. This allows you to connect with other users, find interesting content, and help other users find your posts.
To make your posts more popular, you can use tools such as Hashtagify. This website takes any keyword you enter and gives you related hashtags. For example, using #pet, #cute, or #animal may help to bring more attention to the photo you upload of your #hamster.
Don’t forget to use Instagram Highlights
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to feature stories on your profile.
11. Filter Instagram Comments
Want to get rid of inappropriate or rude comments that appear on your posts? Instead of deleting each comment one-by-one, you can have Instagram automatically filter them for you.
Navigate to your profile, press the three bars in the top-right of the screen, head to Settings > Privacy > Comments, and then toggle the Hide Offensive Comments switch on. You can also use the Manual Filter option which allows you to enter your own words that you want hidden.
12. Hide Your Instagram Stories
The ability to mute stories is one of the things you probably didn’t know about Instagram, as this sneaky feature often goes unnoticed.
When you don’t want someone to see your story for whatever reason, you can actually hide it from them. Go to the three bars on your profile and tap Settings > Privacy > Story. Clicking on 0 People underneath the Hide Story From option brings you to a screen where you can select any unwanted story-watchers.
13. Mute Stories From Certain Users
It can get annoying when someone you follow constantly posts stories. In this case, you can opt to mute them. To mute someone, go to your story feed and hold down that user’s icon. After the menu pops up, choose Mute > Mute Story.
14. Skip, Pause, and Return to Stories
To avoid sitting through each story on your feed, you can swipe left or tap the screen to quickly move to the next story. On the other hand, you can pause a story by tapping and holding the screen. You can also return to the previous story by tapping the left side of the screen, or by swiping right.
15. Archive Your Old Instagram Posts
If you want to remove a post from your profile without deleting it altogether, you should archive it instead. To do this, head to the post you want to archive and select your Instagram options in the top-right of the screen, and press Archive.
Whenever you want to view the archived posts, go to the three bars on the top-right of your profile, choose Archive and then click Posts from the dropdown menu on the top of the screen.
Learn How to Do Cool Things on Instagram
Instagram is more versatile than you might think, and you can do much more than simply scroll through posts. These cool things to do on Instagram can definitely improve your experience by influencing how engaging your posts are, improving the hashtags you use, and making your day-to-day use of the app a little easier.
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.