The Instagram app on an Apple iPhone.
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Instagram is a free social media platform for sharing photos and videos with your followers.
It’s become an especially popular way to connect with brands, celebrities, and friends.
Instagram has an array of features, from short-form videos to live streaming and private messaging.
One could argue that Instagram is a social media network like no other. The popular user base platform is built almost entirely around sharing images and videos. This visual twist is why Instagram is the cultural powerhouse it is today.
With over a billion registered accounts, from small businesses to large institutions, news organizations to cultural hubs, celebrities, photographers, musicians, and not to mention the cottage industry of influencers — it’s hard to remember a time when Instagram didn’t exist.
So, if you’ve found yourself out of the Instagram loop, then read on. We’ll give you a crash course on how the app works, how to get started, and eventually, how to get ‘gramming like a pro.
How to sign up for Instagram
To help you get started, let’s walk through some of the basics:
How to download Instagram
First things first: You’ll need to download Instagram to use the app. It’s available for free on iOS, Android, and Windows devices. While there isn’t an app fully optimized for iPads, you can still enjoy the full IG experience on your iPad by changing your App Store settings to find the app.
How to create an Instagram account
Upon opening the app for the first time, you’ll be prompted to create a new account, or log in with your Facebook account.
If you choose to make a new account, the process is straightforward: you’ll be asked for your phone number or email address, full name, desired username, and password.
Once you create an account, it’s worth noting that you can create — and switch between — multiple Instagram accounts without logging out, a very useful feature if you wish to run separate accounts for personal and professional use.
Even though Instagram is designed primarily for smartphones, the desktop experience — once very limited — has steadily improved over the years.
Today, you can get on Instagram from your computer and use a web browser to edit your profile, view your feed, like and comment on posts, and send and receive direct messages. You can even post on Instagram from the desktop app.
Setting up your profile
After you create your Instagram account, you’re going to want to set up your profile. Your profile page is a hub for all your photos and videos where you can keep track of who you’re following and who’s following you. It’s also where you can access your settings.
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Profile pages are often the first thing people visit, so it’s best to keep your username, profile picture, and bio up to date. Your profile picture is the icon that appears with your username all over the platform, while your bio is a space to offer a brief description of yourself or your brand. You can also add a link in your bio, which can go to your personal website, if applicable.
By clicking Edit Profile, you can make changes to your profile page at any time:
How to change your Instagram profile pictureHow to change your Instagram bioHow to change your Instagram username
If you’re running an Instagram account for your business, you can also add your location.
Customizing notifications
Keeping up with your friends and followers on Instagram means making sure you’re getting the right notifications, at the right time. The platform gives you the power to choose what push notifications it sends to your device.
For example, perhaps you want to receive a notification when you get a new follower, or when someone comments on your post. Or maybe you’re feeling inundated with pings and you would like to turn your notifications off completely.
You can adjust your notifications by going into your profile, tapping the three lines in the top-right corner of the screen and selecting the three lines icon in the same location, and then tap Settings followed by Notifications.
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Now that you have the app downloaded, and your profile set up, it’s time to start sharing.
How to use Instagram
At its core, Instagram is a social media platform, and a highly visual one at that. Every time you open the app, you’ll be met with a main feed of recent posts from the accounts you follow.
At the bottom is a menu bar, which is accessible anywhere you are in the app.
Here’s what each button does, from left to right:
Use these buttons to navigate between your feed, search and Explore, new post, Reels, and your profile.
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Home: Your main feed where you can scroll through photos and videos posted by your friends.
Search and explore: The magnifying glass icon takes you to the Explore page, where you can search and browse content from accounts you don’t follow but may be interested in.
New post: The “plus” icon allows you to create a new story, post, Reel, or Instagram Live.
Reels: This tab includes short videos (up to 90 seconds long) from users you may or may not be following. You can scroll to the next video by swiping your finger from the bottom of the screen to the top.
Profile: This icon navigates to your profile page that shows your bio and posts. It’s also where you can access your settings.
Like other social media networks, Instagram is what you make it. For most people, checking Instagram is equal parts voyeurism and self-expression. For the entrepreneurial set, like business owners, brands, and influencers, Instagram is an indispensable marketing tool with unmatched reach.
But going back to basics, Instagram works off a simple premise: You follow accounts that interest you. In turn, people follow you. Much like on Instagram’s Meta app sibling Facebook, people can “like” and comment on your posts, and you can do the same to their posts. Whether you maintain a low profile or amass a following, how active you are is entirely up to you.
Uploading, editing, and posting photos
To share a photo or video on Instagram, tap the plus button (located at the bottom of the screen). From there, you can select photos or videos from your phone’s camera roll to post.
For every post, you can choose to apply a filter, which, depending on who you ask, is either essential to the Instagram experience or unnecessary, given that many other photo editing apps come with their own filters.
Filters make it easy to edit shots with different visual pre-set overlays. For example, some filters, like Mayfair, give everything a pink hue; others, like Willow, turn everything black-and-white.
You can adjust how intense (or not) the filter is as well using a slider when you select the filter and then tap it one more time.
There are a lot of options in Instagram’s posting screen.
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Once your post is to your liking and ready to go, there are a few more options you can do before you hit the share button:
Add a caption: Captions are always a good idea. You can use words, emojis, or hashtags. Just like in comments, you can also mention friends by typing @ in front of their username. Keep in mind you can edit Instagram post captions at any time — or delete posts.
Tag people: Instagram allows you to “tag” someone in your photos. When you tag someone, they’ll get a notification in their activity feed. (This is separate from mentioning them in your caption.)
Add location: Location tags lets others know where your photo was taken. Clicking on a location tag brings you to its corresponding location feed, where you can peruse other public posts.
Also post to other social accounts: Instagram also gives you the ability to publish a post to other social accounts at the same time. By linking accounts, you can cross-post to Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Tumblr.
Exploring and finding people to follow
The best way to find people to follow is by tapping the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the app. This will open the Explore page, where you’ll find a feed of suggested posts based on what Instagram thinks you’re interested in.
You can scroll down for more posts, or use the search function at the top to find specific accounts or posts.
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When it comes to interacting with others, Instagram works less like Facebook and more like Twitter. In most cases, you don’t have to send a friend request or wait for the other person to accept it.
When you follow other people, Instagram will make sure you see their posts in your feed. For the most part, people can see who you’re following and who’s following you, at all times.
However, if you have a private account your followers are restricted and unable to view who currently follows you.
Sending and receiving direct messages
Instagram’s direct messaging system lets you chat privately with anyone who follows you.
If you send a message to someone who doesn’t follow you, that message will be sorted into its own “message requests” folder. To start the conversation, the person on the receiving end must accept the message.
Direct messages are also available in the app and on the desktop website.
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To access your message menu, tap the paper airplane icon in your home feed. From there, you’ll be shown all the people you’ve had conversations with in the past. You can also tap the pen and paper icon in the top right-hand corner to start a new conversation, or the camera icon to start a video chat.
Once you’re in a conversation, you can send all sorts of messages. These include basic text messages, animated GIFs, and more. You can also share Instagram posts. And you can “like” messages, or delete messages if you no longer wish to see them.
The only users that you’ll have to ask to follow are those who have made their account private.
When you tap Follow on a private profile, you’ll have to wait for that user to accept you before you can officially follow them and send them a message.
You can also connect your phone contacts to Instagram, which can be another great way to find friends on the app.
Instagram features
As you might expect, Instagram rolls out new features regularly. From new content to an ever-expanding set of creative tools, Instagram offers plenty of opportunities for self-expression and creativity.
Here are the latest and greatest Instagram features worth knowing:
Instagram Stories
Many people use Instagram exclusively for creating and viewing Stories, which are customizable posts that only last 24 hours. These posts, which could be a mix of photos and short-form videos, are presented in a slideshow format and accessible through the top of the home feed.
And when we say customizable, we mean customizable. Unlike regular posts, which include only simple filters, Stories boast all kinds of creative elements, including:
Animated stickers and cartoonsPolls and quizzesDynamic song lyricsLinks to donation funds and charities
There are several ways to add to your Story, but the easiest is to tap your profile icon at the top-left hand corner of your home feed. From there, you can either take a photo or video live, or choose one from your phone’s gallery. You’ll then have the opportunity to draw, add text or any of those other creative elements we mentioned above.
While Stories are designed to disappear after one day, they’re automatically saved to your private Archive (which we’ll explain in just a bit) after expiring. You can also create a Highlight, which will publish Stories permanently on your profile for visitors to watch at any time.
Instagram Live
Instagram Live is a feature that lets you livestream, or broadcast live video, from your device to anyone who wants to watch.
Viewers can send you messages and hearts while you stream, making this a great way to talk to all your followers at once, or broadcast an event.
To go live on Instagram, you’ll need to open Instagram and, from your feed, swipe right and select Live from the options at the bottom of the screen.
You can go live for up to four hours at a time — after that, the livestream will end and you’ll need to start again.
Reels
Built as a rival to TikTok, Reels is Instagram’s dedicated video platform, letting users upload videos up to 90 seconds long.
Once you record a video, you can edit it and add music, text, and special effects. Other users can like or comment on your Reels videos, so they can be a fun way to attract new followers.
To watch someones else’s Reels, you need to tap the icon, located in the center of the bottom menu on the app. (It looks like a mashup of a play button and a clapperboard.) Here, you can watch videos that others have uploaded and make Reels of your own.
Instagram Shopping
Given Instagram’s popularity, it’s no surprise that brands are doing everything they can to turn Instagram users into customers. According to Instagram, nearly half of people shop on Instagram weekly. Instagram Shopping is one way to use Instagram for your business by connecting potential customers to your products.
Instagram tips and tricks
Instagram is simple to use, but can take a while to master. Here are some of our favorite tricks that aren’t so obvious to beginners.
Schedule posts in advance
Instagram has become a massive part of nearly every company’s online presence, and if there’s one thing that social media brand managers love, it’s scheduling a post in advance.
Instagram does have a native post scheduler — but that’s reserved for those with professional accounts. Still, there are dozens of third-party programs, like Buffer, that can handle the scheduling for you.
Save Instagram videos to your phone
If you’ve found an amazing video on Instagram that you just need to save, you’re in luck — there are several ways to save Instagram videos.
If you’re trying to save one of your own videos, it’ll just take a few taps to save the video directly to your camera roll. If you’re trying to save someone else’s video, however, you’ll need to record your screen or use a third-party app.
Post different photo formats
When Instagram first launched in 2010, the edits were limited. You could only post square photos — anything else either wasn’t allowed, or would be cut off.
Nowadays, the rules are a bit more lax. But if you want to post two common photo types — panorama shots and Live Photos — you may have to make some edits beforehand.
To post a panorama photo, you can either zoom out so it fits in a single photo, otherwise you’ll need to split up your shots beforehand using a third-party app. If you have an iPhone and want to post a live photo, you’ll need to convert it into a video first.
Archive posts instead of deleting them
If you’re unsure about deleting your post, Instagram offers an archive feature instead. This is great if you only want to hide a post temporarily.
To archive a post, open it, tap the three dots in the top-right, and then select Archive. The post will be hidden immediately.
Once you’ve archived a post, you can navigate to your private Archive with just a few taps.
Note: Every Story you post will be saved to your Archive automatically once they expire.
Privacy and security
It’s also important to manage your privacy and security settings to your liking.
Manage who can see your posts
Like Facebook, Instagram allows you control who can see your posts. The easiest thing to do is make your Instagram Private.
When you set your account as Private, the only people who will be able to see your posts and other activity are your followers. And before people can follow you, you’ll have to approve them.
Another way you can do this is by setting up a Close Friends list. The Close Friends feature allows you to create Instagram Stories that can only be viewed by specific people. If you want to use Stories to send quick updates to your friends, this is the way to go.
Finally, if you run a Business account and you don’t want users under a certain age following, you can set an age limit on your account — the minimum age you can set depends on where you live.
Change your personal account information
We’ve already mentioned that you can change your username whenever you like. But if you’re unhappy with how you set up your account, you can edit other pieces of information too.
With just a few taps, you can change the email connected to your account.
If you want to make sure your account is secure, you can change your Instagram password at any time.
Download and back up your data
Like most social networks, Instagram has an obscure menu that lets you download every bit of content you’ve ever posted on the app. This includes your photos, videos, comments, messages, profile information, and more.
The only content you can’t download are Stories you’ve posted and let expire without saving.
To download your Instagram data, head to the Settings menu in your app and then select Your activity followed by Download Data. Once there, fill out the form, and your data will be emailed to you within a few days.
If you don’t want to download all your data, you can also simply view it in the app.
Protect yourself and others from harassment
Instagram has a long set of rules to ensure that all users have a safe and fun time in the app. But like all sites, it’s not hard to find people who break those rules. Other users can comment on pictures and videos that you post to a public profile – but if you want to post something without leaving it open to comments, you can disable the comments on specific posts.
If you ever find a user harassing you or someone else, you can report them to Instagram.
There’s no guarantee that Instagram will act on the report, but alerting them to it is better than doing nothing.
The bottom line
Whether you’re an aspiring influencer, photography lover, or an everyday social media user, Instagram is a great place to be. It’s easy to get started, so if this guide has piqued your interest, give it a try.
If for whatever reason you later decide it’s not for you, you can delete your Instagram account at any time. No commitment needed.