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.
The Stories feature on Instagram has a pretty great editing program, and it's one that I think is extremely undervalued. Instagram Stories goes beyond just its Snapchat-like features, but also allows you to create more creative and original content to post on your actual profile page.
If you are a small account looking to get more followers and likes, then getting past Instagram's 30 hashtag limit may be what you need to increase engagement. While I don't recommend posting so many hashtags in your caption (it looks terrible), there are certain ways to add tags and still make your posts look super clean.
Instagram Stories is one of the most flexible ways to share creative and original content with your followers. It allows you to alter text, markup images, and add cool graphics and stickers, along with other fun ways of expressing yourself.
Making a custom location on Instagram is one of the best ways to generate traffic to your account. It gives you that extra uniqueness when it comes to standing out amongst other companies. It also allows people to check in at the same location, further promoting your account across other platforms.
Instagram just added another nail in the coffin for Snapchat. It looks like it's the AR platforms final hurrah as IG has snapped up the app's last good feature: its AR selfie filters.
In the U.S., smartphone users spend more time on Facebook and Instagram than on any other app. If this sounds surprising for any reason, it shouldn't. Anyone that's browsed Instagram in a moment of boredom knows that a few minutes can quickly turn into an hour down a rabbit hole filled with Likes, Follows, and straight-up lurking.
Using your iPhone camera's panorama feature is great way to capture wide-angle views of scenery, such as sweeping cityscapes, broad landscapes, and seemingly never-ending skies, as well as that awesome party or get-together you just threw.
If you're one of the many that likes to upload collages to Instagram, the Facebook company has a new tool for you. Instagram released a brand new app in March called Layout to help facilitate the process of creating photo layouts to post onto social media or just share with friends.
Changing the look and feel of an app's user interface can really make it more pleasurable. Popular apps like Facebook or Twitter may take for granted the importance of a clean UI, since the companies have hundreds of millions of users no matter what their apps look like.
Instagram recently released their new Instagram Direct messaging feature in their Android and iOS apps, which lets users share private photos and videos directly with individuals or groups of up to 15 users. However, there are no restrictions on who you can send private photos or videos to.
Uploading certain pictures to Instagram can be problematic, especially when the dimensions of your picture exceed the dimensions of the square crop that's forced upon you. Why should I be forced to hack up my awesome fisheye picture inside of a lame square? I get the whole square thing, and I love it, but there's just some times when you can't be bound by the rules.
One Instagram creator's augmented reality homage to Disney's deep bench of animated characters has earned him fifteen minutes of fame.
After opening up its Spark AR platform on Instagram for all creators, Facebook is already expanding the platform's capabilities on its Snapchat killer.
Facebook recently hit a snag in its quest to take augmented reality face effects to its millions of users.
You're in constant communication with your friends and family. The only issue? Nobody uses the same app. Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp — you have contacts spanning all three, and the resulting balancing-act to keep in touch can be overwhelming. That's why Facebook — who owns all three apps — is coming out with a way to call and message friends across all three platforms from one place.
I noticed the neon yellow sign at the new location of Pho Bar in Chinatown right away. The sweeping cursive yellow letters spell out "Crazy Rich Broth"; the same phrase printed on the back of servers' shirts. It's the kind of minimalist but colorful design feature that is especially popular on Instagram at the moment — shots of patrons in front of a glowing sign.
Fashion brand Christian Dior is using augmented reality as a carrot to drive up their follower counts on Instagram.
On the surface, Instagram is pretty intuitive, so you might think that you already know everything there is to know about using it on your iPhone or Android phone. But this photo and video-sharing app is constantly adding new features, some of which don't make the press releases. Even if you're an Instagram guru, chances are you've missed one of these hidden goodies.
Instagram has long-resisted easily resharing content. While it's been testing a "regram" feature for a long time, it still lags behind apps such as Twitter and Facebook when it comes to resharing content. But while Instagram is a bastion of original material, there is a feature in place for you to reshare stories from those you follow. Your friends can reshare your stories too.
Whether it's for your company, your professional image, or just your personal account, making a poll on Instagram is a great way to reach out to followers, friends, family, and other users to measure their thoughts and opinions about any given topic. Instagram for Android and iOS makes it fun and simple to do so, offering the same tools to professional and personal users alike.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing some of the same old jargon from people online who claim that all you need to make it on Instagram is to take good pictures and post consistently. Yes, for sure, but do you really think it's that easy?
Now that Fyre Festival co-founder Billy McFarland is charged with fraud, this is the perfect time to list off those top 15 influencers who promoted tickets to the disastrous event to their loyal followers, right?
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.
There are so many tips and tricks on how to improve your Instagram photos, but one really easy way is to use the HDR camera setting. HDR is high dynamic range imaging and takes three exposures of a photo — overexposed, underexposed, and one in the middle at the normal exposure. The end result is just one image of the three exposures combined.
Typing out thirty hashtags on Instagram is always such an annoying process. Figuring out the best hashtags to use to get more likes is also tricky. You can't just keep copying and pasting the same hashtags on every post — that's like attacking the same tribe every time. You got to diversify, which takes a lot of conscious effort to be on top of the current best hashtags to use.
Geotagging your location on Instagram is one of the most undervalued ways to generate traffic to your profile. The beauty about adding your location to your IG posts is that it allows you to be seen by other users than the ones that already follow you.
If I told you to follow as many users as you could possibly follow, in order to get more Instagram followers, that may seem counterintuitive, right? If I told you I'm trying to brainwash/annoy you with how many times I could possibly say versions of the word "follow" in an opening sentence, that would seem weird, too.
If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, then Snapchat must be blushing profusely as Instagram continues to shamelessly copy its features and dig into its wallet. Instagram has also managed to copy some of the security aspects — or lack thereof — of one of Snapchat's hottest characteristics.
The photo-centric Instagram app is a great way to share "evergreen" pictures and videos when compared to Snapchat and Facebook's new Messenger Day feature. But like all social media, keeping the account secure is an essential aspect, as it restricts unwanted viewers from seeing your content and can prevent unauthorized users from accessing your account. Instagram has several methods for locking down the account including a new two-factor authentication (2FA) mechanism.
Smartglasses startup Nreal enjoyed some highs and endured some lows this week, as the company landed a product placement with Kevin Bacon but then faced production issues related to the coronavirus outbreak.
Remember Photo Booth on Mac and iOS? It still exists, but there was a of time where everyone was using it. And why not? It was so cool to take photos with any background imaginable. Underwater? Check. On the moon? Of course. Now, Instagram wants to bring back the fun by introducing AR backgrounds for stories.
The Music sticker is one of Instagram's best features. With it, you can add music directly to your story, incorporating a high-quality soundtrack to your favorite moments. On June 6, Instagram upped the ante on this feature, introducing live song lyrics that play throughout your story. Karaoke, anyone?
You see them all over your Instagram Stories feed — post after post, video after video of dramatic, silly, or otherwise fun zooms. Your friends are showing off their lives through the lens of a Hollywood blockbuster, and you can do the same. Luckily, it's quite easy to accomplish, whether you're running iOS or Android.
It's easy to forget just how cool face filters are. Augmented reality has come a long way, and apps like Instagram now offer a suite of impressive effects to play with, but some of the best ones aren't easily found. There is a treasure trove of exclusive, custom face filters that are unavailable to the general public, but not at all inaccessible — you just need to know the trick to getting them.
When you've had enough of someone's annoying baby videos or cat photos on Instagram, you would have to either unfollow them or even block them outright. Now, you don't have to cut ties with them completely — you can just mute them instead, a feature that Instagram's parent company, Facebook, has allowed on its platform for some time.
I spent just about my entire weekend trying to break the 800, 900, and 1,000 levels of Instagram — because it's a game, y'all — by playing around with my follower count. I shamelessly manipulated my IG account in such a way that was extremely time consuming and left many of my friends pretty pissed off at me as I spent most of my time glued to my phone. (Sorry, friends. I know I'm obsessed.)
Combine the word "fake" with the word "Instagram" and you get what's called a "Finsta." If you are concerned about posting pictures on social media that you wouldn't want your family or boss to see, then a finsta account might be the thing that you need.
Instagram can be pretty exact when it comes to where you are located. That's why, sometimes, it's best never to geotag your precise location, but a broader area where you are less likely to get, well, um ... stalked?
So, according to Sprout Social, mentioning an Instagram handle in the caption of your posts increases audience engagement by up to 56 percent. If true, that's pretty impressive.
