- How do I download Instagram Story on a computer? With our detailed manual, you can easily download your favorite Stories on your computer, regardless of your operating system - Windows, Mac, or Linux. Open an IG profile via a browser. Find the account with super-cool Stories. Copy the @username or an account URL.
- Oct 19, 2017 Download and install BlueStacks on your PC. Complete Google sign-in to access the Play Store, or do it later. Look for Instagram in the search bar at the top right corner. Click to install Instagram from the search results. Complete Google sign-in (if you skipped step 2) to install Instagram.
For a while now, I’ve been trying to find an easy way to share photos to Instagram directly from my Mac. A quick Google search brings up a ton of options, but most of them are just apps that you have to pay for because Instagram doesn’t have an official Mac app.
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The app is free – I’m not trying to pay for something that’s already free. While you can still visit Instagram on the web, it only gives you access to things like your feed and the ability to like and comment on posts.
So I found a quick fix to all this and the answer is surprisingly simple. You essentially want to trick your browser into thinking it’s an iPhone. That’s it. After fiddling with a few options, I was able to post an image to Instagram directly from my Mac in under one minute. Seriously, it was that easy, let me show you how.
How to upload photos to Instagram from a Mac
So, to make this work, we’ll need to trick Safari into thinking it’s an iPhone. This is the only free option for uploading images from Mac to Instagram. So to get the ball rolling you’ll have to launch your Safari web browser.
- Launch Safari and from the top menu bar, click Safari > Preferences > Advanced
- Make sure “Show Develop Menu” in the Menu Bar is enabled
- Navigate to the Instagram.com website and log in to your account
- From the menu bar, select Develop > User Agent > Safari – iOS 12.1.3 – iPhone (or the latest version of iOS)
That’s it. The page should automatically reload but if it didn’t, a hard refresh (CMD+R) of the page should do the trick. From there, you’ll see the page is loaded in a mobile format. Doing this allows you to upload images to Instagram directly from your Mac.
How to post photos from your Mac to Instagram
If you’re familiar with posting photos from your phone to Instagram, this next part should come easy.
- On the toolbar at the bottom of your Instagram feed, Tap the + icon
- Browse for the image you’d like to post, select it and click Choose
- Just like the iOS app, you can expand the cropped square image by tapping the arrow icon on the bottom-left of the image preview, and tapping the right icon allows you to rotate the photo
- You can also click the Filter tab to browse for, and apply, a filter to your image
- Once you’ve edited your photo and are ready to share, click Next
- Add a location, caption and/or tags and you’re ready to post to your feed
- Tap Share to upload the image
That’s about it. Sharing Instagram stories from you Mac is pretty much the same process it is on the app. If you’ve come this far, then you shouldn’t have any issues uploading stories to your Instagram account.
This is by far the easiest way to upload photos to Instagram from a Mac. And the best part about all this is that it’s free. I wish I discovered this trick years ago.
Did you know about this trick? Did you end up paying for something to do this? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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Bring all messengers into one
Your computer and mobile phone live two different lives. There are apps so broad-gauge you can’t limit their functionality to mobile or tablet only. And there’s hardly a better example than Instagram. Focused on photo and video sharing, Instagram grew into a tool for recording every moment of your routine. While lots of communication happens around Instagram posts and stories, it was inevitable for the app to become a messenger as well. And so it became!
You can access Instagram on Mac via your browser — it covers the features like browsing through the feed, commenting, and liking. Since recently, you can also read and send Instagram messages on computer. What the web version doesn’t support is the Instagram upload feature. This means you can not share your content to Instagram from a browser. But worry not, there are some workarounds — both inside the native app and with the assistance of third-party tools.
Instagram DMs: How does it work?
Instagram Direct was added to the platform in 2013, around three years after the launch. You can access Instagram direct messages (DMs) via the icon in the top right corner of your Feed from mobile or on the web. Here’s what you can do with the Instagram messenger:
- Share text messages, Instagram posts/photos/hashtags/locations, as well as photos and videos from your phone’s library with people you’re following.
- Send a message to Instagram users you’re not following — the recipient will see it as a message request.
- Respond to stories in private messages (with text or instant emoji reactions).
- Create group messages (up to 32 people can be invited to the group).
- Video chat with up to 6 people via Instagram Direct.
You can read more about the capabilities of DMs on the Instagram Help Centre.
DM on Instagram from Mac
Get a huge set of top apps for DM on Instagram from Mac, view your messages, and receive notifications without having to switch to mobile. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!
How to check Instagram messages on Mac
Once you receive a message on Instagram, you’ll see a number count appear with your DM icon. Tap it and you get access to the message. For a long time, this was the only way to check direct messages on Instagram — by launching the app. Since 2017, Instagram has also added the notifications feature, allowing users to view messages right from a phone’s locked screen.
Enable notifications for Instagram messages on Mac
How to check direct messages on Instagram on computer? To allow Instagram send you notifications, you have to do the following:
- Click on your profile page (a person icon in the bottom right corner of the screen)
- From your profile, go to the main menu in the upper right corner and click on Settings.
- Select Notifications > Direct Messages.
- Click “On” if you want the app to notify you about incoming messages, message requests, and video chats.
In the same menu, you can customize notifications settings for posts, likes, comments as well as pause all in a click.
IM+ for a flawless management of Instagram accounts
An all-in-one messenger for Mac, IM+ gives you the flexibility of choice in terms of how many messenger accounts you can handle from one spot. It also covers the DM feature of Instagram, along with other messengers of your choice. Basically, it’s an aggregator of messengers that supports popular platforms, from Slack to Facebook Messenger to Telegram, and sits in your Dock for easy access to all communications.
The key pain IM+ is solving relates to the number of accounts you can manage. The app simplifies your life if you need to toggle between business and personal accounts on Instagram. Plus, sometimes we all get into a messaging loop — switching between Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. IM+ puts it all into a sidebar, so you don’t have to dig around.
Here’s how IM+ adds flexibility into your Instagram routine:
- Instagram DM: If you use Instagram with IM+, the app will show you the DM icon — just as on mobile. You can use it to check Instagram messages from Mac as well as create and send the new ones.
- Get notified: Enable notifications and IM+ will prompt you whenever someone sends you a direct message on Instagram.
- Toggle across accounts: Add multiple Instagram accounts and set up hotkeys for an access to the most frequently used accounts.
- Update your status: When your messaging time is over, or you simply want to take a break, change your status to “unavailable” across all accounts at once. You can also easily mute notifications from the menu bar.
Instagram App Download For Mac Laptop
Whether for different channels or multiple Instagram accounts, IM+ is a perfect tool for business communication. If you want to learn more about how to reap benefits from Instagram for Business, check out this guide.
Beautiful Instagram journey on Mac with Grids
IM+ works if you need to check DMs on Instagram, but it’s pretty much limited to messaging. Grids is a whole different story. A full-featured Instagram app for Mac, it fills the gaps by bringing the native features of a mobile Instagram app to macOS. Fair to say, it even makes many things easier.
As you launch Grids, it takes you to a beautifully organized feed. You can choose from among four different layouts and view posts the way you want. The search, likes, comments, and tags — every small thing that makes Instagram complete is covered.
Grids also has the DM feature that replicates Instagram’s native DM logic. You’ll find a familiar DM icon in the top right corner of the app’s window:
How to post photo and video to Instagram from Mac
Once you’ve mastered Instagram DM on Mac, dive deeper into Grids — it has so much more to offer:
- Upload photo and video from your Mac’s desktop. The most wanted feature across all Instagram apps is photo upload. Grids enables you to upload any content stored on your Mac to Instagram.
- Make the necessary adjustments. Switch between the original size and a square (check out instagram dimensions) to customize the look of your photo/video on the feed. Add caption, tags, and location to make your post complete.
- Post Stories from Mac. Grids is the only desktop app that can post directly to Instagram Stories. Simply click on your profile picture and share your photo or video in Stories.
- Choose the best layout. Grids comes with four beautiful layouts you can switch between. Each layout will automatically adjust to window size and present Instagram content in the best view.
- Toggle between accounts. Just as with IM+, you can use Grids for managing both your personal and business accounts — without any limitations. The best thing is you don’t even have to sign in and out if you use multiple accounts — there’s an easy toggle for that.
Tweaking Instagram on a Mac
Without using any third-party software on Mac, your Instagram life is pretty much limited to viewing photos, liking, and commenting. But it’s not carved in stone, though. You can make Instagram think you’re accessing the platform from your mobile phone and thus get access to some of the features like Instagram DMs and photo upload.
What you can do is change browser user agent to iPhone or iPad to enable photo upload on a Mac:
- Open Safari Preferences > Advanced.
- Check the box next to “Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar.”
- Click on Develop in the top menu bar and select User Agent.
- Choose the latest version of iPhone or iPad available on the list.
- Reload or access your Instagram page at www.instagram.com — you’ll see the mobile version with full-fledged upload functionality.
Well, it still has some limitations. If you change user agent to mobile, you’ll be able to post photos and stories as well as do some basic editing — like rotate or add text and stamps to stories. However, you won’t be able to upload video. Plus, there won’t be any of the filters and color effects available.
Note: Instagram thinks you’re using your phone, so it might occasionally give you mobile-related prompts. For instance, it can ask you to rotate your device. To fix the problem, you’ll just need to make the window look narrower by dragging its edge inwards.
Instagram For Mac
Cheating is cheating. You can use the option of tweaking Instagram settings for emergency cases, but it doesn’t cater for frequent use. This is why we recommend having a native app like Grids installed on your Mac. This is the best way to bulk upload photos and videos and post Stories. If you need to use Instagram DM online, you can get it in the web version via your browser. For messaging on Mac, we use Grids or IM+ messenger (if you need more than one messenger in one spot) — both apps are part of Setapp. As a nice perk, you get around 180 other macOS tools in the same package for a flat fee.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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