Posting To Instagram from Your Computer! A Look at Your Current Options

Last Updated on 04/14/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

Instagram is THE social network photographers should be utilizing

Instagram – if you are not using it often to share your photography with the world then you are missing out. But if we had to guess one reason why you are unable or unwilling to make the commitment, we would say it is possibly because you don’t like the hassle of getting the images you want to share onto your phone in order to post them to Instagram.

This has long been the struggle for professionals looking to get quality images onto Instagram, but it is 2018, and there are actually ways now to post to Instagram from your computer. In this post we will be looking at a couple of ways that you can do this; hopefully saving you time and frustration with whatever your current Instagram workflow is.

 

The Browser Hack

The simplest way for you to post to your Instagram feed without the need for much funny business is this method by which your trick Instagram’s website into thinking that you are viewing the website from a mobile browser (ie; from your phone). To do this you will need to be browsing using Google Chrome (Get it here if you aren’t already using it).

• Step1: Go to Instagram’s website in Chrome
• Step 2: Press Ctrl+Shift+I to open Chrome’s “Inspect” functionality
• Step3: Click on the Mobile Device Icon
• Step 4: In the toolbar that appears, click on the dropdown that says ‘Responsive’ and change that to ‘iPhone 6’ (or whatever the latest iPhone listed is)
• Step 5: Refresh Instagram’s Website, and you should now see the Camera Icon, which will allow you to post your images to your Instagram profile.

Shout out to techygeekshome for the primary source material for this guide, get the full instructions in their blog post.

 

The Windows Store Instagram App

If playing around with web browser hacks is not something you want to deal with you may be able to post to Instagram from the comfort of the Windows 10 Instagram App. But unfortunately, there are a few caveats; the big one being that you can only post to Instagram using the Windows App if you are using the app on a computer that has a touchscreen. This means most of you desktop users won’t be able to make use of this unless you buy a touchscreen desktop monitor.

However, if you have a laptop with a touchscreen, then this could be a really simple and easy way for you to get your images onto Instagram without any hassle. But the one issue that remains with this App is it can sometimes have issues quickly accessing the images on your device. So be prepared to get frustrated from time to time with how long your image library takes to load in the app. If you can get used to this then the Windows App is a good option.

 

The Social Scheduler’s (Hootsuite, Later, Etc)

The other option you have for easily getting your images onto Instagram comes through your browser in the form of Social Scheduling apps like Hootsuite and Later. These apps let you upload and schedule updates that will be (or can be, at least) posted automatically to your Instagram feed without you having to lift a finger (beyond setting up the post in the scheduler). This is the latest and in our opinion the best, way to get your images onto your Instagram feed without having to first send them to your phone.

But as with the other options above, this method has its own quirks. You have to have your Instagram account marked as a business profile in order to take advantage of this functionality. So you will need to decide if you want your profile to be a business profile or not, but if you find the change acceptable, then this functionality becomes available to you. Secondly, you should be prepared to pay for this feature if you want to post as often on IG as you should.

Both HootSuite and Later offer this functionality with their free accounts, however both have limitations on their free accounts, so if you want to take full advantage of this feature (like being able to schedule out an entire week or month or more ahead of time), then you will need to be prepared pay a little bit (Later’s base plan is $9 a month) for that convenience. We think it’s worth it from the time savings alone, but you can make that call on your own.