12 Secret Instagram Features You Don't Know About

Instagram has been making so many changes recently, it’s been hard to keep up. With huge additions such as Instagram stories and business profiles, some of the more minor features tend to slip by unnoticed. For more information on all of Instagram’s major changes check out, 9 New Instagram Updates You Should Know About in 2017.

For now, here are the more under-the-radar changes made by Instagram recently.

12 Hidden Instagram Features You Might Not Know Exist

We created this short video so you can see all the hidden Instagram features in action! Feel free to read about all of the features mentioned below as well.

1. Hold down on photo to preview, then slide up to like, view profile, or send as message.

This is great if you’re browsing the discover page or if you’re stalking someone’s profile. Instead of clicking on the image to view it, just press and hold down to take a closer look. This will pop the image up so you can view it larger, here you can then slide up if you want to like, view profile, or send as message, otherwise just let go and you can keep scrolling.

2. Hold down on username or profile picture to quick-view someone’s profile.

This feature allows you to preview someone’s profile without having to click to actually go there. Want to quickly view someone who liked your photo or who like someone else’s photo? Just press and hold on their username or profile picture to get a quick glimpse of their account.

3. Save images to your profile (only you can see what you’ve saved).

Do you ever come across an interesting picture or video that you want to show someone later? Or a post that gives you an idea that you want to easily view later without have to screenshot it? Now you can with Instagram’s save feature. You can save any image or video that you come across and it will be stored on your profile in a place where only you can view it.

4. View all the posts you’ve liked.

In your profile settings (gear icon, top right of your profile) there is a section called, ‘Posts You’ve Liked.’ Here you can scroll through literally all of the images and videos that you’ve liked. So if you can’t remember where you saw that one image, but you know you liked it, you might be able to find it here. Or, click to go to the posts and unlike it if you don’t want others seeing that you liked it.

5. Easily switch your account to a business profile.

Many people might think this is some difficult process when actually it’s super easy. All Instagram does is connect to a Facebook page. So if you have a business, organization, or blogger Facebook page, just go to your profile settings, scroll down to ‘Switch to Business Profile.’ You will then be asked to approve access for Facebook and choose which page you want to connect to that account. It’s that easy!

6. Slide back and forth to switch between home, direct messages, and create stories.

There are so many different things you can be doing on Instagram all at the same time such as, messaging friends, scrolling through your feed, or creating stories. Instagram makes it easy to switch between all of these features, just swipe left and right to go from creating stories, to your feed, to your direct messages!

NOTE: Grab this FREE guide to take your IG to the next level!

7. Hold down on the stories of people you’re following to view their profile or mute their stories.

At the top of your feed you’ve probably seen all the stories of the people you’re following. There might be someone who keeps popping up there that you’re not really interested in viewing their story. Just hold down on their profile image and Instagram will give you the option to view their profile or mute their story, then you never have to see them at the top of your feed again if you don’t want to.

8. Hide your story from people.

Let’s face it, we probably all have people in our lives that we don’t always want viewing our Instagram stories. Whatever your situation is, you can easily hide your story from people you don’t want seeing it. Just go to your profile settings, then ‘Story Settings’ and at the top you’ll see ‘Hide Story From.’

9. Hide inappropriate comments.

This is great if you don’t ever want comments containing certain words or phrases showing up on your posts. Just go to your profile settings, scroll down to ‘Comments’ and there you’ll be able to turn on ‘Hide Inappropriate Comments.’ Instagram will then hide comments that contain words or phrases often reported as offensive, and you’ll also be able to add your own custom keywords which will hide comments containing those keywords.

10. Three dots, top right (block, report, hide story, copy profile URL, share profile, send message, turn on post notifications).

You probably already know about the three dots on the top right of someone’s profile. However, you may not be aware of all the things you can now do by clicking those three dots. You can now block, report, copy profile URL, share profile, send a message to that profile, and turn on post notifications for the profile. Maybe one of these options will be useful for you.

11. Zoom in on photos.

This one is pretty simple, just use two fingers to zoom in on photos to get a closer look. This one is just pretty cool because it use to not be possible and if you wanted a closer look you would have to screenshot, then go into your photos and zoom in, not anymore!

12. Share old posts on other social media platforms.

You may think that once you’ve posted and forgot to turn on ‘Share on Facebook’ or ‘Share on Twitter’ that you’re screwed. Not all you have to do is click the three dots in the top right when viewing your post and you can easily share old posts on other social media platforms. And, if you didn’t already know, you can also turn off commenting, edit, and delete by clicking those three little dots.

There you have it, 12 hidden Instagram features you might not know exist!

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Hopefully this article opened your eyes to a few cool features that you were unaware of before and let me know in the comments if I missed any of the more under-the-radar Instagram features!

FYI: This article was originally published on our website (BenderMedia), 12 Hidden Instagram Feautres