Instagram web: how to use Instagram from the computer?

 Instagram web: how to use Instagram from the computer?-Overview

Whether through posts on the wall, Stories or the new  Instagram TV , Instagram has carved a niche for itself in the daily life of marketers.

If you usually work from your computer, you may find it more useful to  use Instagram web , but you may not be very clear about how to do it or if you can do the same things as from the mobile version. Therefore, in this article we explain the secrets of Instagram web.

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Instagram web how to use Instagram from your computer

Instagram web and app: similarities and differences

When Instagram launched in October 2010, it only had a mobile version. It was a social network that was designed to portray your daily life, apply different filters to photos and upload them, so surely its creators thought that it made little sense to create a web version.

This changed in November 2012, when the  instagram.com domain was launched  , allowing anyone to view user feeds from their computer. However, this version had many limitations: you could not use the search bar or view a feed of posts from multiple users.

Little by little, the  web version  was enriched with new functionalities, but it has always remained in the background with respect to the application. Today, this is what you can and cannot do with Instagram web.

What can be done on Instagram web

Log in  with your regular Instagram user account and see your news feed, Stories and notifications.

Interact  with the publications and Stories of other users.

Pause the videos . 

This functionality is only present in the web version; on mobile, when we touch on a video, the only thing we can do is activate or stop the sound.

Send  direct messages  (since early 2020).

See  live broadcasts .

 For a long time, this feature was exclusive to the mobile version of Instagram. But since last month, Instagram web users can already see the direct from their computer. In fact, many users prefer this option, since logically the videos can be viewed larger and also the comments appear on the side of the video, instead of overlapping.

If you are very overwhelmed, you need to disconnect and want to cancel your account for a season, but without deleting it, this can be done from the web version. You will temporarily deactivate your account  and it will be activated automatically when you log in again with your access and password.

Publish  videos of 1 minute to 60 on Instagram TV , allowing you to publish the first minute of the video in your feed automatically.

What can not be done on Instagram web

Publish photos and videos (up to 1 minute) in the feed or stories directly . If you do marketing on Instagram, surely you would love to be able to manage this network directly from your computer. But in principle, the functionality of uploading publications is limited to the mobile version.

Use Instagram Shopping .

 Instagram web does not support Shopping, so images with tagged products appear without these tags.

Without the option to publish photos and videos, it seems that marketers have no choice but to turn to mobile to upload content ... but wait! There is a shortcut to be  able to use full-featured web Instagram . In the next section we will explain it to you.

How to use Instagram web from your computer

Login and navigate

If what you want is to simply consult a public Instagram profile in your browser, you only have to enter the URL of that profile, for example, https://www.instagram.com/jaimealtozano/

But in order to use the rest of the functions of your account, logically the first step is to  log in . To do this, enter your username and password at www.instagram.com

Once you do, you will find the Instagram feed that you already know, but in an expanded version. The information is displayed in two columns, with a toolbar at the top.

Instagram-web

The main column on the left is where your feed posts are displayed  . You can scroll to see what's new, click to see several photos in a gallery, watch videos (with the pause function we discussed earlier), like a post or add your comments. Basically, you can see everything you could see on the mobile app.

You can use the Browse button   to browse the most popular posts of the moment or the heart icon to see your notifications.

In the right column you will find the Stories section  . 

If you click on a user's profile, you will see their Story. Instagram plays the next Story automatically, but you can also click on the right side of a Story to switch to the next one. As you can see, the functionality is very similar to the version of the application.

To view an Instagram Live video, just click on the "Live" tag next to the story in question.

Send direct messages

As we mentioned before, for a few months now, Instagram web has also allowed you to use the direct messages version, although with some limitations:

What you can do : create new groups, send stickers and share photos from your computer.

What you can't do : send ephemeral messages or GIFs.

To use direct messages from  Instagram web , follow these  steps :

Open  Instagram web in your browser  and click on the direct messages button.

You will see an interface with two panels. You can click on a conversation to start sending messages there or press the New Message button to create a thread or group from scratch.

In the pop-up window that will appear, enter the name of the account or person you want to send the message to. If you want to create a group, select multiple users. Then click "Next" to start the conversation.

You can also click the direct message icon from any post to send it to a conversation (same as in the mobile app).

instagram-web-direct-messages

Post videos on Instagram TV

If you have incorporated  Instagram TV  into your marketing strategy, you should know that you can  publish your IGTV videos directly from the web .

This functionality allows you to upload much longer videos than usual on Instagram, up to 60 minutes long. The option to upload them directly from Instagram web avoids having to send large files to mobile phones. Let's see how it is done step by step:

Log into www.instagram.com as explained before.

Click on the Instagram TV option.

Click the "upload" button.

Click on the "+" icon and choose the video you want to upload from your computer. You can also drag and drop the file.

Add a suitable title and description for your video content. Remember that you can share a preview of the video on your feed and your Instagram profile, or on your brand's Facebook page.

Click "Publish" and ... voila!

TIP: Post photos and Stories on Instagram web

Finally, we are going to see the definitive trick that allows you to  use Instagram web with all the functionalities of the mobile application, including publishing photos and videos .

The basis is very simple:

It is about "convincing" Instagram that you are actually browsing from a mobile phone. To do this, you have to change what is known as the user agent or "user agent" of your browser. It sounds complicated, but it really only takes a few clicks. This option is available in all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. To see detailed instructions, I recommend that you  search for "change user agent" + the name of the browser you are using .

Once you have changed the user agent, the tab you are in (in this case, the Instagram one) will change to the mobile layout. If this doesn't happen, refresh the page to see the changes.

If you prefer a more permanent solution to avoid continually updating the user agent, another option is to install the  Vivaldi browser  (from the creators of Opera), which has a version called "Web Panels" that allows you to display the mobile version of a site from the Web.

In either case, you will have managed to open  the mobile version of Instagram in your web browser , so you now have access to the option to publish photos and videos. Just click on the "+" icon at the bottom. A window will open to choose photos and videos from your computer. You can then edit it with the same options as in the mobile version, write captions, add locations and tag users.

If you want to publish a  Story , click on the camera icon in the upper left of the screen. Choose your photo and customize it, but bear in mind that you will not be able to add augmented reality effects. When you're done, click "Add to my story" and ... voila! You already have everything you need to do Instagram marketing from your computer.