Here we’ll explore tips and tricks for posts, stories, and other account features that will help you maximize how you use the app. 

30 Instagram Hacks to Up Your Instagram Game:

General Instagram Basics 

Hack 1: See all posts you’ve liked

 This feature lets you revisit up to 300 posts that you’ve liked.

Tap the three-line menu on the upper hand corner of your profile Tap ‘Settings’ then ‘Account’ Tap ‘Posts You’ve Liked’

If you’ve updated your app to the latest version:

Tap ‘Your activity’ instead of ‘Settings’ Tap ‘Interactions’ and choose ‘Likes’

Hack 2: Remove posts from your feed

Instagram has an archive feature that allows you to remove photos from your feed temporarily.

Select a post you want removed Tap the three dots on the upper right-hand corner  Select ‘Archive’ 

If you want to view archived posts, tap the three-line icon in the top right corner of your profile and choose archive. You’ll see your posts, live videos, and story archives.  To return an archived post, tap the three dots again and select ‘Show on Profile.’

Hack 3: Mute accounts 

You can mute accounts you don’t necessarily want to unfollow but don’t really like seeing on your feed. 

Click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of the post Choose ‘Hide.’ 

A prompt will appear with the option to ‘Mute account.’ You can mute just their posts or both their posts and stories. You can also mute someone by pressing on their story, clicking on mute, and selecting either posts or stories to be muted.  Alternatively, you can go to the profile of the account you want to mute, tap the Following button, choose mute and mute posts, stories or both.  It’s easy to unmute too:

Go to their account and visit their profile Tap on ‘Following’ Tap unmute

Hack 4: Get notifications for when certain accounts post

Want to keep tabs on specific accounts? Stay updated by turning on notifications for when they post something. 

Go to the profile of the account  Click on the bell icon in the upper-right-hand corner Turn on notifications for either posts, stories, reels, videos, or live videos. 

Hack 5: Check and limit how much time you spend on Instagram

It can be easy to lose track of time just scrolling through an Instagram feed, but you can limit this preemptively by setting a daily timer. 

Tap the three-line icon on your profile Select ‘Your Activity’ to see how much average time you spent on Instagram  Tap ‘Time spent’  Select ‘Set daily time limit’ and choose from 15 minutes to 2 hours

Hack 6: Create collections and bookmark favorite posts 

You can create collections of posts for any category of your choice for future reference.

Find the bookmark icon at the bottom right of a post Tap it to automatically save the post to your general collection  Create custom collections by tapping the + icon and naming a new collection, or add the selected post to an existing collection 

To see previously saved posts, click on the three-line icon on your profile and tap ‘Saved.’

Hack 7: Hide or approve tagged photos 

You can choose which posts that tag you can appear in your profile.

Navigate to the person in a box icon on your profile to see photos you’re tagged in Select the photo you want removed  Tap the three dots icon in the upper right-hand corner and choose ‘Post Options’ Choose ‘Hide from My Profile’ to stay tagged but remove it from your feed, or ‘Remove Me From Post’ to remove the tag completely

Alternatively, you can control what photos will appear on your profile beforehand with the option to approve them first. 

Tap the three-line icon on the upper-right hand corner of your profile Go to Settings and select ‘Privacy’ Click on ‘Posts’ and navigate to ‘Tagged Posts’ Turn on ‘Manually approve tags’ 

Hack 8: Turn off your activity status By default, Instagram shows your activity status – ie. Active 2 hours ago. If you want to keep this private from anyone following you or anyone you’ve been messaging with, here’s how

Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu on the upper hand corner of your profile, click on ‘Settings’ Tap ‘Privacy’ Select ‘Activity Status’ Toggle off ‘Show Activity Status’ 

Hack 9: Delete a specific photo in a Carousel There’s now a way to delete select photos from a carousel post. There’s no need to delete the entire carousel post anymore thanks to this new Instagram update. 

Select the carousel post you want to edit Click on the three dots on the top right corner  Swipe to the specific photo/s you want to delete A trash can icon will appear on the top left corner which will allow you to delete the selected photo

Instagram hacks for your bio

Hack 10: Add unique characters and symbols to your profile 

Open a Word or Google doc. Type in your bio, and tap insert > Advanced Symbol where you want to insert a special character Click ‘Edit Profile’ on your Instagram profile Copy and paste your bio and click ‘Done’ 

Hack 11: Use a special font on your bio 

You don’t have to be limited by Instagram’s default font to display your bio.

Search for a special font app compatible with Instagram (such as Font Generator) Type in your desired text  Choose from the different fonts  Copy and paste your text into Instagram

Hack 12: Add line breaks into your bio 

Adding line breaks can make your bio look way more organized, and it’s easier to do on a web browser.

Go to your profile and select ‘Edit Profile’ Edit in the settings tab and type in your bio with spaces and breaks Save to keep the formatting intact

Hacks useful for your business profile 

Hack 13: See active ads run by business profiles

You can use this tool to revisit any ad you’ve seen in the past, or check up on ads being run by your competitors.

Tap the three lines on the upper-right hand corner of your profile Select ‘About this Account’  Select ‘Active ads’ See all the ads the page is running at the moment 

Let’s see some active ads on Canva right now: 

Hack 14: Restrict commenting to your followers 

You can allow only your followers or people you follow to comment on your posts.

Tap the three lines on the upper-right hand corner of your profile Go to ‘Privacy’ and tap ‘Comments’ Choose ‘Allow Comments From’ and select the group you prefer

If you want to turn off comments completely on a post, you can disable comments by tapping on the three dots on the upper-right hand corner and choosing ‘Turn off commenting.’ 

Hack 15: Create saved replies 

Save a longer reply that you can prompt using a single word to save time when engaging with your customers through Direct Messages (DMs). 

Go to Settings and click “Business”  Choose ‘Saved Replies’  Type your response, like “Hi! Kindly send us your full name, contact number, and address for us to process your order.” Save it using a word that will be your shortcut. For example, “customerinfo” can be a shortcut for the above reply. 

The next time you type in your shortcut word, the message will be automatically generated. 

Hack 16: Hide your hashtags 

There are two ways you can hide potentially distracting hashtags, and the first is to put them in a comment instead. Your hashtags will be hidden once another comment pops up in the comment section.  Another way is by putting several line breaks in between:

Tap the 123 key and the return key  Key in a punctuation mark (period, usually) then tap Return again  Repeat the steps above 

Instagram doesn’t show anything after those three lines in a caption, so your hashtags will remain hidden this way.

Maximize your post’s visibility and discoverability by using the most used and most relevant hashtags for your selected keyword. 

Tap on the magnifying glass icon at the dashboard  Go into the ‘Tags’ column and type in your keyword on the search bar A list will then be populated with the most popular and relevant keywords, along with their use volume Take note of the hashtags and use them on your post 

Hack 18: Make use of the Collab feature

This new feature by Instagram has made partnering up and collaborating with other brands or other creators easier! Co-author posts or reels and maximize your reach. 

Create a post or a reel  Write your caption and select “Tag People”  Select “Invite Collaborator” Look up the user’s handle and select their profile  Share post  The collaborator you’ve chosen will then get a notification to accept or reject the invitation to collaborate  Once they accept, you’ll then both be tagged in the post and share the same likes, views and shares 

Instagram Story Hacks 

Hack 19: Get access to more colors 

Align your stories better with your branding using specific colors. 

Open your stories and tap on the pen Hold down one of the color options and wait for the color gradient to appear  Choose your preferred color 

Hack 20: Use a greenscreen for your stories 

This lets you further customize a story or just hide the background of where you’re recording.

Go to Story as if you were making one Swipe right and select ‘Reels’  Click on the filter icon  On the panel with various effects, you can type ‘greenscreen’ or select in manually Select ‘Add media’ and choose the backdrop that you want

Hack 21: Add links to your story with customizable text 

Direct customers to any URL from your Story by adding a link sticker.

Prepare your Story post  Tap the Sticker icon on the top right corner Choose ‘Link’ and type the URL Add your preferred text in the ‘Customize sticker text’ field  Play around with your sticker placement, size and color on your story 

Hack 22: Reorder your photo filters

Save yourself time by rearranging your filters in your editing window.

Add a new photo or video, then go into editing mode Go to the filters page and pick a filter you want to move Hold the three-line icon and drag the filters to your desired order  Click ‘Done’ to save your settings

Hack 23: Use your Instagram stories to get insights on your followers

Instagram’s poll sticker lets your followers pick between choices to get further insights on what they’d like! The poll sticker feature even allows you to even customize choices aside from the default Yes or No. 

Prepare your Story post  Tap the Sticker icon on the top right corner Choose ‘Poll’ Type your question Customize, add more choices and post Check back on your story to get insights on how your followers voted

Hack 24: Choose a different cover photo for your video 

Get to use your preferred still image as the cover photo for your video post instead of picking a specific still within the video. 

Click on the + button on your homepage, and choose ‘Post’ Choose the video you want to upload  Click on ‘Cover’ and click on the + button at the bottom of the screen to add a photo from your camera roll 

Hack 25: Paste photos on your Story 

Did you know that you can paste images on your Story? You can add screenshots, logo and basically anything from your camera roll. 

Prepare your Story post and make sure you already have a photo or background selected Leave Instagram to open your camera roll and select the photo you want pasted on your Story Select ‘Copy photo’  Go back to your Story, tap the screen and click paste  Add as many photos as you want 

Hack 26: Fill your Story background with a solid color 

There are many available gradient backgrounds available,  but if you prefer a solid color for your Story, here’s how to do it. 

Go to your Story and select any photo  Click on the three dots on the right-hand corner and select ‘Draw’  Select your preferred color from the palette, or hold and press down to get access to a gradient of colors (see Hack 15) Press anywhere on the screen for about two seconds and wait until the screen gets filled with your chosen color 

Hack 27: Fill your Story background with a translucent layer 

Instead of filling your Story with a solid color, go for a more subtle effect by adding a translucent layer instead. 

Go to your Story and select any photo  Click on the three dots on the right-hand corner and select ‘Draw’  Select the highlighter pen tool  Select your preferred color from the palette, or hold and press down to get access to a gradient of colors (see Hack 15) Press anywhere on the screen for about two seconds and wait until the screen gets filled with a translucent layer of your color choice 

Hack 28: Add music to your Story and customize it

Take advantage of Instagram’s music library and make your Story livelier by adding music. 

Choose the photo or video you want to post  Click on the sticker icon, and then tap Music Browse through from Instagram’s library of songs, and get to pick from different genres Select a song to add to your story  Adjust clip duration by pressing ‘15’ – you feature up to 15 seconds of the song you want featured  Swipe to see all the different options on how the music can appear visually – options include real-time lyrics, album art or a simple text box with the name of the song. (Tip: You can pinch or expand to resize) Click on ‘Done’ and post 

Hack 29: Post multiple stories at once 

Did you know that you can easily edit and post multiple Stories at once? With Instagram’s new Multi-capture feature, you can. 

Open Instagram Stories and pick the Multi-capture feature on the left Start taking photos—you can do up to 8 using the feature  Click on ‘Next’ Add effects, paint, edit each of the photos as you normally would Click on the arrow to share to your Story

Hack 30: Use a video as a base layer to your photo on your Story 

Have both an animated video and a static photo at the same time on your Story

Select a video from your library or record a video for your Story Open stickers on the right-hand story  Select the photo sticker Select the photo you want to post alongside the video from your gallery  Layer the photo on top of the video, move it around and resize it to your own liking

Instagram Tips and Tricks 

With Instagram’s new updates, it can be hard to keep up sometimes. These tips and tricks can hopefully use your account more efficiently, enhance your brand’s visibility and make the most out of Instagram’s features.