Instagram, the e'er-popular app that allows you to share photos and videos with your friends, family unit and followers isn't limited to simply your phone or tablet. While at that place'south no official app available, we tin can show you how to use Instagram on a Mac.

The biggest complaint people take with using Instagram on the Mac is that while you can browse images, and even like and comment on them, y'all can't upload images. Then in this article, we volition show you a couple of workarounds that let you lot to upload images, videos and carousel posts to Instagram from your Mac.

The Instagram web experience

While there'southward no official Instagram for Mac app bachelor to download, users of the social network do take the option of heading to Instagram.com on a Mac. The basic web app gives yous admission to your main Instagram feed, allowing you to browse through photos and videos that friends take posted as well as liking and commenting.

Instagram rolled out Stories support soon later on launching the web app, allowing you to view the temporary posts on the big screen, and in Jan 2020, the company started testing support for Directly Letters via the spider web app. It's only available for a small percentage of users correct at present, merely information technology should hopefully be rolled out worldwide soon.

There's no denying that the Instagram website has been vastly improved since it kickoff launched, just there'due southstill no native way to post images or videos either to your feed or to your Instagram Story...

How to upload photos to Instagram from a Mac

While you can't use the standard Instagram website to upload photos on a Mac, there is a way to 'fob' Instagram into thinking you're accessing the site via an iPhone, which does allow for photo uploads. Nosotros'll bear witness yous how to make Instagram call up you are on an iPhone then you can upload images.

Step 1: Make Instagram call back you're on an iPhone

First things offset, before we can fool Instagram into letting us upload an paradigm we demand to make information technology retrieve we are in fact using an iPhone.

  1. Open up Safari and caput to Safari > Preferences > Advanced.
  2. Make sure Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar is toggled on.
  3. Head to the Instagram website and log in to your business relationship.
  4. Then select Develop (from the menu bar) > User Agent > Safari - iOS 12.1.iii - iPhone (or whatever version is newest).

Now the Instagram website should automatically reload (manually refresh if not) and display the mobile version of the site, complete with upload functionality.

Footstep 2: Upload photos to Instagram from your Mac

Now, to utilize your Mac to upload your photos:

  1. Tap the + icon on the toolbar at the bottom of your Instagram feed.
  2. Browse for the image you'd like to mail, select information technology and click Cull.
  3. You lot tin can aggrandize the cropped square image past borer the arrow icon on the bottom-left of the prototype preview, and borer the right icon allows you lot to rotate the photo.
  4. You tin can also click the Filter tab to browse for, and utilise, a filter to your image.
  5. Once you lot've edited your photo and are fix to post, click Adjacent.
  6. Add a caption, location and/or tags and you lot're set to post to your feed.
  7. Hit Share to upload the paradigm.

Step 3: Upload photos to Instagram Stories from your Mac

  1. Select the Your Story icon in the top left.
  2. Scan for the paradigm you'd like to post and double click or select Choose.
  3. You lot'll then run into a preview of the image (and potentially a request for Instagram to know your location).
  4. You lot tin can add stamps or draw on your image using the tools.
  5. If you'd like to add text to your paradigm click on the Aa in the top right. Whatever you type will appear in the centre of the image one time you select Done.
  6. In one case you have input your text and click on Add to your story.
  7. If you don't desire to post the paradigm click on the X in the pinnacle left. Yous tin can choose to Go along or Discard the image.
  8. When y'all are happy with the epitome click on Add together to your story.

The drawbacks of using this technique to mail to Instagram Stories? It works all-time with Portrait images (mural gets cropped). Nor tin yous upload videos this manner.

Those are large drawbacks, just there are workarounds available.

How to upload Instagram photos via Vivaldi

One of the lesser-known Mac web browsers is Vivaldi and it merely so happens that you lot can post images to Instagram using Vivaldi without any of the complications described above.

You tin can add Mobile every bit a web panel in Vivaldi and always use that setting when you visit Instagram.

Here's how:

  1. Download the Vivaldi browser. We had to install version 2.8.
  2. Go to Instagram.com and log in.
  3. Click on the + icon in the bar on the left.
  4. The Instagram URL volition announced in the box nether Add Spider web Panel.
  5. Now click on the Web Console and a page will open up on the left that shows the mobile version of the Instagram website.
  6. Co-ordinate to Vivaldi, yous should be able to click on the photographic camera icon and add together images to your Instagram Story or click the plus icon to add photos to your Instagram feed.

Best Instagram apps for Mac

There is a handful of third-party Instagram apps available that offer a range of abilities, from beingness able to browse your feed to checking your notifications to posting images from your Mac onto the social network.

Uplet

While Uplet doesn't offer the power to browse your Instagram feed natively, information technology does offer features that ability-users may exist interested in. Uplet is a uncomplicated app available for download that allows users to elevate and drop photos & videos and bulk upload them to Instagram in a few seconds - but there'due south more.

You can edit each photo and video similar on Instagram, and add together individual captions to each photo. It also has the crop pick featured in the app, allowing users the ability to upload either the original or square-size photo.

While this isn't for casual users, it allows those die-hard Instagram fans to upload multiple posts all at once. Our only complaint? Information technology is yet to support the new Instagram multi-photo mail option, although we imagine support will exist coming in the near future.

While it was once a standalone app, Uplet is now exclusively bachelor as part of the Setapp Mac app suite at $nine.99 a month.

Bluestacks Android Emulator

Another mode to upload photos to Instagram from a Mac is an emulator. Ane of the most consistent and trusted emulators we've come up across is Bluestacks, a complimentary Android emulator that can be downloaded here.

How to use Instagram on Mac - Bluestacks

Once downloaded, you lot'll need to ready an emulated Android device. For this, yous'll need a Google business relationship and a Bluestacks account, and you'll need to link the two within Bluestacks. Once that's done, yous can use the Android emulator to navigate to the Play Store (which is Android's equivalent of the App Store) and download Instagram.

You can then sign in to your Instagram account, and use the app as you would if y'all were using a mobile device.

On a related annotation, here's how to upload a full-size photo on iPhone to Instagram. And if y'all'd rather use the social network on a tablet, have a read of How to go Instagram on iPad.

Note: We featured Flume every bit a great option for Mac users at one time, but the app has since stopped functioning and the developer has gone dark, so we'd recommend fugitive Flume until the developer fixes the bug.