Written By
Katy Boykin
Last Updated: June 15, 2023
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.
As a content creator, you know it can be such a pain to get your high-quality photos from your computer to your phone to share on the Instagram app without the help of a social media scheduling tool.
Fortunately, there’s an easy little hack that will allow you to post on the Instagram website from a desktop computer or a laptop!
In this article, I’m going to show you how to post to Instagram step-by-step no matter if you’re using a PC or a mac… but beware! Without a scheduler, there are some limitations (I’ll cover those shortly).
If you’re on a budget and need to post a simple photo though this hack can be a huge timesaver!
Benefits Of Posting On A Computer
You can use this little productivity hack anytime you need to quickly publish a new feed post. It allows you to easily…
- Upload any photo saved to your computer. (That’s right — skip the hassle of sending yourself a photo, opening it up and saving it on your phone just to post on IG.)
- Type out captions on your computer. (It can be hard editing captions on mobile with that tiny little text block they give you.)
- Copy-and-paste a block of 30 niche-specific hashtags into the first comment
Here’s how to do it…
How To Post On Instagram From a PC or Mac
Part 1. Access The Posting Controls
In this method, we’re going to change the web browser user-agent, meaning we’re going to trick your desktop browser into thinking and operating as if you’re viewing Instagram on an iPhone, thus giving you the ability to post from your computer.
- First, open up a Google Chrome browser on your Mac or PC and go to www.instagram.com.
- Right click and choose “inspect”. This will give you access the developer controls inside of your browser.
- Click on “Toggle Device Toolbar” — the icon that looks like a phone and tablet stacked together.
- Click on “Responsive” and choose “iPhoneX” from the dropdown menu.
- Next, refresh your screen. Once the page loads, you should see the similar controls that are available on a mobile device.
Part 2. Upload The Post On A Computer
For this next part, you may notice that your cursor turned into a circle. That’s because your cursor now imitates the way your finger would use on the Instagram app.
- Click the plus icon, locate the photo you want too share on your computer, and choose open.
- To adjust the photo, click on the image, and drag the photo around until it’s positioned the way that you want. You can also click on “filter” in the bottom left-hand corner to adjust add any filters. When your photo is all set, click “Next”.
- Write your caption, add your location, tag anyone who is in your photo, modify any advanced settings and click “Done”.
Voila! you’ve successfully posted your photo to your Instagram account from your desktop or laptop computer!
Want to see this in action? Here’s a snappy 15-second tutorial I shared to my Instagram Reels:
Limitations With Posting To Instagram From Your Computer
While this trick is really handy, it does come with some limitations. Currently, this method only allows you to upload a single photo. That means you’re not able to use Instagram’s most popular features…
- You can’t select multiple images to use in a carousel post.
- You can’t upload videos as posts.
- You can’t upload an Instagram Reel
- You can’t upload a Guide
- You can’t upload an Instagram Story
- You can’t upload an IGTV Video
- You can’t live stream
If you wanted to be able to utilize more of Instagram’s features from your desktop, you can access the creator studio for free, otherwise, you’d need to post through your mobile app directly.
If those options really aren’t working, you can schedule Instagram posts through a premium scheduling tool like Later or Tailwind.
What is Later?
Later is a social media scheduling tool that allows you to visually plan your social posts, schedule your posts to get published automatically and get in-depth insights to help you reach more people.
Later is the tool that I personally use every week to thoughtfully create and automate my Instagram strategy (from my laptop)! This tool helped me streamline my social media marketing efforts and has saved me a ton of time. Instead of spending hours a day on social media (which I used to do), I now batch my social media tasks and create posts and stories for the entire week. Since the tool automatically publishes the posts or stories on my behalf, I can focus my time and attention on engaging with my audience and building relationships.
If you’d like to give Later a try, you can use my link and get 10 free posts: https://www.katyboykin.com/later
Final Thoughts
Next time you post to Instagram, give this little productivity hack a try! Also, don’t forget to take advantage of the 10 free posts from Later if you really want to take your Instagram strategy to the next level for your business.
