In this video, I show you how to post images from the mobile web to Instagram and from the desktop.
Last week (5/8), Instagram updated its mobile web website and added the ability to post to Instagram without having to download the app from your smartphone’s browser app.
To try this out for yourself open up a web browser on your smartphone and go to www.instagram.com. You’ll notice that there will be text down by the camera icon that says “Post from the web” with text above that says “Open in App.”
Tapping on the camera icon will open up a window. You can take a photo, grab it from your photo library or cloud services like Dropbox.
There is a downside to using Instagram in the mobile browser. You don’t have the ability to use geolocation, filters, messaging, or scale resizing. There are two options. Pinch (reduce size) and resize buttons. That’s it. Perhaps Instagram will release more features in the coming months.
These limitations make me wonder why a user would use the mobile web app versus the Instagram app.
A Techcrunch article sheds some light on the reasons why:
Many users in the developing world may not have a fast enough cellular network to conveniently download Instagram’s app. Their phones don’t always have enough storage to download it without sacrificing other apps or content. And the data cost of downloading the app can be prohibitive.
With the expanded mobile web version, users can skip the app download’s wait time, data costs, and storage needs while still getting the basic functionality.
Where I think the Instagram mobile option comes in handy is when you’re on the desktop (yes the desktop!).
The desktop version of Instagram does have several features to edit but not post. You can search, discover people, and look at who has followed us. You can change your profile and customize your link and update or change your account settings.
With the Instagram mobile web, you can kind configure your browser to be a mobile browser.
While on the Instagram in Chrome, right click and select Inspect. For other browsers like FireFox, choose or select developer tools. The code behind the website appears in a window. If you’re not familiar with this, don’t be worried, you can’t break anything.
In the corner of the Inspect window click on “Toggle device toolbar.” It looks like an Ipad or iPhone icon. You want to click on that once; the Chrome browser will reconfigure into a mobile platform. Then you want to click on the camera icon in Instagram. Select a photo from the desktop. You may notice that nothing happened. The only thing that appears different is Instagram now says “Open in App” same as it did on the mobile web. Now you have the ability to upload our videos and images right from the desktop.
After you select your image, click Next. Enter your caption for your image by either copying or pasting or type it directly into the browser and don’t forget to add your hashtags (#).
From there you are ready to share with the world.
So, what do you think? Would you use the mobile web version, or would you use the app?
I would use the Instagram app, but I am posting to Instagram directly from the desktop.
