Despite the innovations introduced in recent months, the great desire of any regular Instagram user is to be able to use the platform from their computer without any limitation. Why? Well, because it would make things much easier when publishing content, especially in brand profiles. So, until an official support arrives, let’s see what possibilities exist to publish photos and videos to Instagram from the PC .
Instagram and the experience from the web
Over time, the Instagram website has been undergoing changes and improving the options it offers its users. From being a simple viewer it has gone on to allow the management of comments and some other extra. This is all you can do from the web currently:
- See the stories of all those profiles you follow
- View the publication feed of any public profile, the ones you follow and are private as well as your own
- Interact with posts and like, comment, share or save in your private collection
- Access to direct messages and option to send new ones or reply to received ones
- Access to posts, IGTV, saved posts and where you have been tagged
In addition to all this, you also have the possibility of managing your user profile. For example, to change the profile photo or everything related to the password and security, notifications, applications and authorized websites, etc.
However, there is one thing that we all wish we could do without going to the phone: posting content . It’s possible? Yes, it is not something that Instagram allows by default, you have to resort to certain tricks, but it can be done even if there are limitations. Therefore, if you are interested in the subject, we tell you all the options to publish content on Instagram from your Windows or Mac computer, also for Linux.
How to post photos to Instagram from your computer
Among photos and videos, the first are the easiest to publish from a computer. It does not matter if you use Windows or macOS as the operating system, because in both the method of achieving it is the same: change the user agent of the browser.
What does it mean to change the user agent, simply by making the platform believe that you are accessing through a mobile device. You can do this from browsers like Chrome (also Edge) and Safari. To do this, all you have to do is enable the developer options, that will give you access to the agent change.
Before continuing, this method will only allow you to post photos, both in the main feed and in the stories. To upload videos we explain later what options you have.
How to change user agent in Chrome
If you use Chrome and want to change the user agent, the first thing you should do is activate the developer tools.
- Open Chrome and in the menu View> Developer options select Developer tools
- A new view will open with two columns, on one side the web and on the other the code of the same
- In the web window, at the top, select the display of one of the mobile devices it offers. For example, you can select Pixel 2.
If you look, now it shows you as if you were looking at the screen of a smartphone. Or what is the same, practically the same Instagram interface if you accessed through the application. Logically, it detects that you are from a (mobile) browser and that will limit the options, while recommending you to use the app. But hey, you can publish content in your feed and also stories as long as they are images.
How to change the user agent in Safari
To change the user agent of the Apple browser, simply go to the Preferences and there you will find the option, but to facilitate everything much more, follow these steps:
- Open Safari, both on Windows and Mac
- Go to Safari Preferences
- In the Advanced section check the box Show the Development menu in the menu bar
- Go to the Development> User Agent menu
- In this new menu select, for example, Safari – iOS – iPhone
Done, you already have it, now you just have to access the Instagram website and see that the interface has changed with respect to the view you had previously. Just one last detail, if you see that the icons do not appear to publish content, adjust the width of the window.
The latter will bring up icons to add content at the bottom. You will also see in the upper area the icon with your profile photo and the + sign to publish content in your stories. Likewise, you can only upload images.
Filters, labels and some other extra
Now that you know how to post photos to Instagram from your PC, what exactly can you do with them. Well, almost everything you can do from the native app, although in the case of stories there are certain limitations.
When you publish in your main feed you can apply any of the filters that the application offers, because you can frame and even adapt the image so that it looks complete, you can also tag other accounts and add a text to the publication. Possibilities that are not bad considering how we got to this option.
As for the stories, here we are somewhat more limited, but you can still add text, annotations with the pencil tool and some stickers. The only thing is that you take into account that sometimes the stickers do not work well and the publication hangs, so you would have to start from the beginning.
How to post videos to Instagram from your computer
Posting video to Instagram from the PC can be done, but it is not as simple as it is with photographs. Or rather, it is not free. The tools that allow you to publish video are paid, some offer a free trial period so that you can assess their usefulness, but once the time is up you will have to pay.
All these tools work practically the same, you access a panel and from it you link your Instagram account to the service. From there, you can already upload your video file and publish directly or schedule the publication for a specific date.
These are tools designed for account management by professionals or users with specific aspirations within the platform. Therefore, being a service for which you must pay you will have to assess to what extent it compensates you or not. Some of the solutions that allow you to publish video from your computer are:
Of the three options, the most interesting may be Later since it has a free plan that allows one social profile per platform and up to 30 posts per month, although that does not include video. To publish videos you have to go to the payment plan.
Finally, in the event that you have a commercial or business Instagram profile, you can use Creator Studio . This Facebook tool allows you to connect an account to a page and thus publish both photos and videos for free . So if you don’t mind modifying your profile and creating a Facebook page to link to, it’s an interesting option. It also has limitations, such as not being able to modify already scheduled publications, but it is free.
