Instagram is a fun social networking platform, super easy to open and use. But if you’re ready to tinker a little under the hood, there are some really interesting tips, tricks, tips and hacks that you can take advantage of to get even more out of the free service.
From stopping another Instagram user from knowing you’re online to an easy way to add line breaks to your post captions, we’ve put together a selection of things you might not have known you could do on Instagram.
1. Prevent another Instagram user from seeing when you’re online
Instagram offers “restriction” functionality, which means that you can ensure that another user cannot see when you are online or have read your messages.
In addition, comments from anyone you restrict will only be visible to that person, although you can choose to see the comment by tapping “View Comment”.
You will also not receive notifications about future comments from that person.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
To restrict someone on Instagram, open the profile you want to restrict and tap the three dot menu in the upper right corner. Now tap on “Restrict” and follow the instructions.
If you want to block someone completely, you can always go to their profile, click on the three dot menu in the upper right corner and select this option to do that.
2. Delete your embarrassing search history
No one needs to know that you had an Instagram search session late at night and chased your favorite celebrity / high school boyfriend / nemesis / corgis using tuxedos. It’s quick and easy to clear your search history.
Go to your profile and click on the three line menu in the upper right corner of the screen. Click “Settings”, click “Security”, and from the Security menu, select “Clear search history”.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
On the next screen, you can click on the “Clear all” option in the upper right corner. Your research secrets are safe.
3. Move your favorite Instagram filters to the top of the menu
It’s easy to customize your Instagram filters to move your most used favorite filters to the top of the list, so you don’t have to scroll through the less popular options to use them.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
When you’re on the filter page of the Instagram posting process, simply press and hold any filter and then drag and drop it where you want it to appear on your list.
4. Organize your saved items in collection folders
When you save content on Instagram, only you can see that you saved it and it goes straight to your Saved area. By default, everything you save is grouped in the “All posts” folder.
If you are saving content that you want to return to, it is a great idea to create collection folders within your Saved area to organize your material in an organized manner. You can access it quickly instead of scrolling through the pages of posts to find what you’re looking for.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
To add collection folders to your Saved area, go to your profile and tap the three-line menu in the upper right corner of the screen. Now tap Salvo, which has a bookmark icon next to it. In your Saved area, tap the “+” button to create a new collection folder and give it a name. You can now add the posts you want to appear in that folder.
5. Fix positive comments at the top of your posts
You can pin up to three comments at the top of any of your posts to, in Instagram’s own words, “highlight positivity”.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
To do this, view the post’s comments, swipe left on the comment of your choice and touch the pin icon to move it to the top of the list. Be aware that when you post a comment, the person who wrote the comment will receive a notification.
6. Stop following inactive accounts in bulk
Instagram makes it easy for you to see Instagram accounts that you don’t need to follow, either because they have become inactive or because your content is no longer of interest to you.
To see all of this in one place, go to your profile and click on the “Following” link. On the next screen, you’ll see a clickable list of accounts that you’ve “least interacted with”. This gives you the ability to review accounts you’ve interacted with for at least the past 60 days, which includes disliking your posts or reacting to your stories.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
Click to see each account and if you decide that you no longer want to follow them, just tap “Following” and you will no longer follow them.
7. Save that catchy Reels soundtrack
If you hear music or other audio in an Instagram Reels clip that you absolutely adore, you can easily save it for later listening or to use in your own Instagram Reels creation.
Just look at the bottom of the screen to see the scrolling audio information and click on it. This will take you to the information page for that audio.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
Click “Save audio” at the top of the screen. Now, to access your saved music clips, go to your profile and click on the three line menu in the upper right corner of the screen. Then click on “Saved”. You will see any audio saved in a separate folder for “Audio” collections.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
To use your saved clips in the creation of a new Moment, click on the “Audio” option on the left of the Moment composition screen and you will see the option to access the “Saved” audio at the top of the screen.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
Just click on the “Saved” box to see the audio.
8. Add line breaks quickly and easily
The standard Instagram keyboard, whether you’re commenting or posting, doesn’t show the “Return” key, leaving many newbies on Instagram completely confused about how to add line breaks. There is a super simple hack, however, to make the return key appear so that you can add a line break and not post solid, hard-to-read pieces of text.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
If you touch the “123” character key to enter the numeric menu, the return key will suddenly appear. You can click here to get the desired line break and then return to the alphabetical menu to continue typing.