Social Media Instagram 90 90 people found this article helpful 12 Instagram Tips and Tricks to Try Some helpful ways to enhance your Instagram experience by Elise Moreau Freelance Contributor Elise Moreau is a writer that has covered social media, texting, messaging, and streaming for Lifewire. Her work has appeared on Techvibes, SlashGear, Lifehack and others. our editorial process Facebook Twitter Elise Moreau Updated on January 06, 2021 Tweet Share Email The Ultimate Guide to Instagram The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Introduction Instagram Basics How to Use Instagram Instagram Tips for Beginners Check Messages on Instagram Add or Change an Instagram Background Search Instagram for Tags and Users Add Music to Instagram Video Use Instagram Video Chat Try Instagram Shopping Get Verified on Instagram Clear Search History on Instagram Posting on Instagram The Best Time to Post Save a Draft of a Post Repost an Instagram Story See Previously Liked Posts Post a GIF to Instagram Add Multiple Photos to Stories Save Instagram Videos How to Quickly Repost Photos Saving Photos Deleting Photos and Videos View Saved Posts With Instagram Collections Working With Followers Mute Someone on Instagram See Who Unfollowed You on Instagram Block Someone On Instagram Unblock Someone on Instagram See Who Viewed You Great Tools to Track Comments Remove Followers on Instagram Tips to Get a Shoutout on Instagram Attract More Instagram Followers Delete 'Suggestions for You' IG Tips & Tricks Instagram Tips and Tricks to Try Add Highlights on Instagram Learn About Instagram Direct Use Instagram's Close Friends Feature How to Delete or Deactivate Your Account Reactivate Your Account Reset Your Password Get Started With Location Tagging How to Repost Shoot Videos with Instagram Video Understanding IG Privacy & Security Hide Your Story on Instagram Does IG Send Screenshot Notifications? Make Your Instagram Account Private See Who Saved Your Instagram Posts Download Everything IG Knows About You Manage Multiple Instagram Accounts Hiding Photos Rather Than Deleting Them How to View Private Instagram Accounts Engaging Users on Instagram Start an Instagram Live Video How to Sell on Instagram Use an Instagram Creator Account Make Money as an Instagram Influencer How to Get More Likes Things You Should Definitely Do Get on the Instagram Explore Page The Best Instagram Apps to Boost Engagement How to Make a Poll Instagram Extras: Captions & More Steal These: The Best Instagram Captions Discover the Best Instagram Filters Have Fun With Instagram Hashtags Use Emoji Hashtags on IG The Easy Way to Track IG Hashtags How to Use the IG Questions Sticker Using Instagram on Other Platforms Can You Get Instagram on Apple Watch? Use Instagram on a PC or Mac Get Instagram for iPad What is the Galaxy S10 Instagram Mode? View Instagram on the Web Online Connect Instagram to Facebook Tools for Posting From the Desktop Instagram is one of the largest and most popular social networks, but it has to continuously change and adapt to keep users interested. Gone are the days when it was just a simple little app for sharing photos with vintage filters. Today, it has all sorts of hidden features that aren't apparent through casual use. Here are 12 Instagram tricks and tips you need to know. 1:23 See Who Unfollowed You on Instagram 01 of 12 Automatically Filter Inappropriate Comments RichVintage / Getty Images We all know that trolls love Instagram. Just take a look at any post from a user with over 10,000 followers and you're almost guaranteed to stumble across at least one very mean comment. Instagram now allows users to hide inappropriate comments by filtering out certain customizable keywords. To use this feature, navigate to your user settings from your profile, scroll down through your options, and tap Comment Controls under the Settings section to block comments from specific users, hide offensive comments, and manually create filters for specific words or phrases. 02 of 12 Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, and Skip Through Stories BlueJay / Getty Images The introduction of Stories was quite the gutsy move for Instagram. Like Snapchat, they're meant to be over in a few seconds. If you turn your head or zone out while watching a story, you could miss out on the content. Lucky for you, you don't have to watch a story all over again if you miss it. To pause a story, tap and hold. To rewind, tap the top left of the screen (beneath the user's profile photo and username). To fast forward through a user's multiple stories, tap the screen. And to skip an entire user's stories, swipe left. You can also repost an Instagram story to your own audience if it makes sense. 03 of 12 Mute Stories From Specific Users You Follow solidcolours / Getty Images The thing about Instagram is that it's too easy and enticing to follow hundreds (possibly even thousands) of users, making it difficult to find the stories worth watching. But if you don't want to unfollow the users whose stories you're not interested in, what can you do? Instagram allows you to mute any user's stories so they won't show up in your feed. Just tap and hold any user's little profile photo bubble in the Stories feed and select the mute option from the menu that pops up at the bottom of the screen. This fades their bubble and pushes it to the very end of the feed, which you can navigate to and unmute any time you want. 04 of 12 Allow Messages on Stories Only From Followers You Follow Back Tero Vesalainen\Getty Images By default, Instagram allows all of your followers to reply to your stories. If you have a very popular account and aren't interested in being bombarded by a flood of messages from a bunch of complete strangers, you can change this setting. Access your user settings from your profile and select Story Settings under the Account section. Here, you can set your message replies up so that only followers you follow back can reply. Alternatively, you can turn them off completely. 05 of 12 Hide Your Stories From Specific Users hocusfocus/iStock/GettyImagesPlus If your Instagram account is public, anyone can see your stories if they navigate to your profile and tap your photo. You also may have certain followers who you don't want to see your stories for whatever reason. Go to your Story settings to enter the usernames of people you want to hide your stories from. You can also hide your stories from any user when you're on their profile by tapping the three dots in the top-right corner of their profile and selecting the Hide Your Story option from the menu that pops up. 06 of 12 Open Boomerang or Layout From Within Instagram Boomerang and Layout are two of Instagram's other apps you can download for free and use to enhance your photo posts. Boomerang lets you create a GIF-like post with short, subtle movements (but no sound), while Layout lets you combine several photos as a collage into one post. If you have these apps on your phone already, you can access them from within Instagram. When you tap the Camera tab in Instagram to upload a new photo or video from your library, look for the little Boomerang icon (resembling an infinity sign) and the Layout icon (resembling a collage) in the post viewer, which takes you straight to either one of those apps. 07 of 12 Sort Your Filters to Put Your Favorite Ones First Instagram edit tools. Evi Abeler Instagram currently has lots of different filters to choose from. Many users tend to favor just a couple, and it can be a pain to scroll through them to find your favorite one when you're in a rush to post something. You can sort your filters so the ones you use the most are right there at the beginning. Just scroll to the very end of the filter menu and tap the Manage box that appears at the end. You can hide certain filters altogether by unchecking them, or you can drag and drop the ones you like best to the top of the list. 08 of 12 Turn on Post Notifications for Posts From Specific Users Instagram Whether you follow too many users and don't always make it all the way through your feed, or you always want to be among the first to see a specific person's post as soon as possible, you can set up notifications every time they post to avoid missing anything. To turn on post notifications, tap the three dots that appear in the upper right corner of any user's post or on their profile and select Turn On Post Notifications. You can turn them back off any time you want. 09 of 12 Share a Post by Direct Messaging One or Multiple Users When it comes to letting your friends know about another user's post you want them to see, the general trend is to tag them in a comment. The friend receives a notification that they were tagged in a post so they can check it out. The problem with this trend is that friends who receive lots of likes and comments and follows may not see that you tagged them in a post you want them to see. A better way to share someone else's post with them is by direct messaging them with it, which is easy to do by tapping the arrow button beneath any post and selecting the friends you want to send it to. 10 of 12 Switch From a Personal Profile to a Business Profile A smartphone showing an Instagram profile. Like Facebook Pages, Instagram now has profiles for businesses where you can market to your audience and engage with them. If you already use a regular Instagram profile to market your business or organization, you don't have to create a whole new account—you can immediately change it into a business account. Access your user settings from your profile and tap Switch to Business Profile under the Account section. You can only do this if your profile is public. A business account puts a contact button at the top of your profile and gives you access to analytics so you can see exactly how your Instagram marketing is paying off. 11 of 12 See a Feed of Posts You Previously Liked Photo Muchomor / Getty Images One of the main interactive features of Instagram is, of course, the heart button. Tap that heart (or double-tap on the post) to let the poster know you liked it. But what if you want to return to a certain post you previously liked and can't remember where to find it? Instagram doesn't have a separate section for likes unlike other social networks like Twitter. You can access them, though, if you know how. Go to your profile > Settings > Account > Posts You've Liked. 12 of 12 Zoom in on a Post for a Closer Look Grab the metaphorical magnifying glass to find even tiny emails in macOS Mail. StockUnlimited Instagram is primarily for mobile devices, and sometimes those small screens really don't do photos and videos justice. That's why Instagram decided to introduce a zoom feature. Just pinch your index finger and thumb on the area of the post you want to zoom in on and widen them apart on the screen. You can also do this to zoom in on Boomerang posts and on videos. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit