41 Instagram features, hacks, & tips everyone should know about [new data]

I’ve been in content marketing for about eight years, and I’ll tell you this golden nugget of truth for free: You can’t cheat your way to success in this game. And that’s especially true regarding marketing on a highly visual platform like Instagram.

In my experience, it takes dedication, consistency, and hard work to build a reputable Instagram account. However, I’m all for Instagram hacks that make account-building easier, especially since HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report revealed that 29% of marketers believe Instagram will see increased investment in 2025. (See where other Meta channels stack up in comparison.)

So, whether you’re posting for business or pleasure, countless lesser-known features, settings, search options, and Instagram tips (as well as tricks and hacks) that can help take your Instagram game to the next level. And I’ve compiled them all here.

Let’s go!

Table of Contents:

• 41 Instagram Hacks, Tips, and Features
• Instagram Design Features [+ Tips]
• Instagram Optimization Features [+ Tips]
• Instagram Reels Features
• Instagram Stories Features
• Instagram User Preferences Features [+ Tips]
• How to Get Verified on Instagram

Instagram Account Features

Note: Before getting started, make sure you’re operating on the latest version of Instagram. At the time of publishing this guide, the latest version is 379.0.0 on iOS and Android.

Please also note that although this article might demonstrate each tip below using an iPhone or Android device, all items on this list are available for both operating systems and can be enjoyed using the same step-by-step instructions.

1. Add and manage multiple accounts from the same device.

As a freelance social media manager working on multiple client accounts, I found this hack an absolute blessing. Managing multiple accounts from the same device made my job more effective, efficient, and, honestly, way easier.

For example, if a scheduled post hit a technical glitch and didn’t go live, I can toggle between accounts and manually post the content (without an arduous log-in process).

I can also complete engagement tasks (i.e., commenting on X amount of relevant posts) for multiple client accounts in one session. I don’t know about you, but I find it much easier to do the same task repeatedly if I’m already in the zone.

But even for personal use, it’s a game changer. Separate account for your dog? Don’t be embarrassed; stand by your puppy profile. Whether it’s a pet or a business account, you can add and manage it alongside your personal account.

Here’s how:

1. Either hold down on your profile photo icon at the bottom right of the screen or tap on your bolded handle name in your profile.
2. Here, you will see the current Instagram and Meta accounts listed. Tap Add Instagram account, and you can either log into an existing account or create a new one.

You can also come to this window to toggle between profiles.

2. See all the posts you’ve liked.

Ever wanted to see all the posts you’ve liked in one place? Go to your profile, click the three lines on the top right (Android and iOS), tap Your Activity, and click Likes below Interactions.

Unlike any posts, simply go to the post and deselect the heart icon below it. Don’t worry — the user won’t be notified that you’ve unliked their post.

Pro tip: Looking for a super specific post but you’re not sure how to find it? Above all of your Likes, there’s a small row where you’re able to sort any posts by Author (aka User), Content Type (Posts, Reels, and Threads), Date (Past Week, Past Month, Past Year, or a Custom Date Range), and Newest to Oldest.

3. Hide, delete, or disable comments and likes on your posts.

X may have a more “anything goes” culture of commentary, but my Instagram profile is my domain, and it’s much easier to control who says what on my content. This is especially important for those who manage a business account.

To Filter Comments by Keyword:

• Navigate to Settings and Activity by clicking the three lines at the top right of your profile.
• Scroll down and click Hidden Words under How others can interact with you.
• You can toggle Hide comments to filter general offensive words or click Manage custom words and phrases to add custom filters.

To Hide Comments:

• Tap Hide directly under the comment. This will hide it from view, but the original commenter won’t know the comment was hidden.

To Delete Comments:

• Hold down on a comment to open up options.
• Click Delete to delete the comment. You can also Restrict or Block the individual from commenting again.

To Disable Comments Entirely:

To clarify, you can’t turn off comments across your entire profile. However, you can disable them for individual posts:

• To do so, start posting an image.
• When you reach the page, tap Advanced Settings at the bottom to add a caption, tags, and location.
• This will open a screen where you can easily switch on an option labeled Turn Off Commenting.

4. Clear your Instagram search history.

To clear your Instagram search history (on Android and iOS), go to your profile, tap Settings, then Your activity. Tap Recent searches under How you use Instagram and click Clear all.

5. Add another Instagram account to your bio.

Maybe your company has more than one Instagram account for different aspects of your brand. For instance, HubSpot has a verified HubSpot account, a HubSpot Life account, a HubSpot Academy account, and a HubSpot Partners account.

To draw awareness back to its main company page, HubSpot links to the @HubSpot account in its other account bios, like in @HubSpotLife’s account:

Fortunately, you can include another Instagram account in your Instagram bio. To do so, type the “@” sign into your bio and select the account you’d like to tag. Then, click Done.

6. Communicate with your audience using Instagram Broadcast channels.

According to our 2025 State of Marketing Report, the number one trend being explored in 2025 is creating content that reflects your brand’s values (21%).

A great way to try out this trend is through Broadcast Channels, a messaging tool for creators to engage directly with a large group of followers.

Creators can share updates and behind-the-scenes content as text, video, voice notes, and images. Also, just a heads up: followers can’t send messages but can enjoy the content, react to content, and vote in polls.

Check out Doechii’s Broadcast Channel below, where various approved fan accounts send updates and other important news about her music:

Instagram Design Features [+ Tips]

1. Add special fonts to your bio.

Here’s an Instagram bio hack that can make your profile stand out. You can already add emojis to the bio beneath your profile photo, but the keyboard limits your creativity there.

Using a couple of basic third-party websites, you can copy over some more special fonts not often found in the Instagram community. Here’s how:

To Add a Special Font to Your Bio via Mobile:

• Add a new font to your Instagram bio via your mobile device using a website like LingoJam.
• Open the site on your phone, type your desired bio text in the left-hand text box, and see the same bio text in different typefaces appear on the right.

• Carry your chosen font over to your Instagram bio by tapping it and selecting Copy.
• Then, open your Instagram app, navigate to your profile, select Edit Profile, tap the Bio section, and paste your chosen font into the empty field.

To Add a Special Font to Your Bio on Desktop:

If you’re editing your Instagram profile on your laptop or desktop, Font Space has a library of fonts you can download and copy into your bio in seconds.

• Find a font you like and select Download beneath the font’s sample image, as shown below.

• Downloading this font will open a folder on your desktop where you can pull a “.ttf” file that carries the various versions of this font. The file will look something like the screenshot below.

• Once the font is copied to the computer’s clipboard, open an internet browser and log onto www.Instagram.com.

• Select Edit Profile and paste the downloaded font into the bio field.
• Edit the sample text that came with the font to write a new bio as you see fit.

2. Add special characters to your bio.

Beyond customizing your bio with a special font, you can add atypical characters that distinguish you or your brand.

These include §, †, or even ™ — symbols you wouldn‘t find on a smartphone’s keyboard, which is helpful if an Instagram name features a trademarked product name.

To Add Special Characters From Mobile:

• Install a free mobile app like Character Pad on your mobile device. This app catalogs nearly every character and symbol you might need but won’t find in the 26-letter English alphabet.
• Open the app and find a character to add to your Instagram bio.
• Simply double-tap the picture of a symbol to paste it into a text box, as shown below.
• Then, copy this character to your phone’s clipboard. (For example purposes, I double-tapped the half-moon icon.)

• Once the symbol is copied to the clipboard, open Instagram, navigate to your bio, and tap Edit Profile.

• Hold down your finger on the field of your bio you want to insert your special character until Paste appears as an option, as shown below.
• Tap Paste and then Done.

To Add Special Characters From a PC:

You can insert special characters and symbols through Instagram’s web client on a desktop or laptop. In my opinion, the easiest way to do this is through Microsoft Word’s Advanced Symbol insertion icon and the pop-up menu.

Source

• Select the desired symbol or character and copy it to your computer’s clipboard.
• Then, navigate to Instagram.com and follow the steps above to paste the character into a particular part of your bio.

Note: You might be tempted to simply Google search for the special character you want, but not all special characters from the internet are “clean” when pasted into Instagram. Some might become corrupted or not show up correctly.

3. Use Instagram as a photo editor (without posting anything).

This is one of my favorite Instagram hacks. I don’t always want to share content on Instagram, but I might want to share visual content on a different social platform like LinkedIn.

In my humble opinion, no other social platform matches the photo editing capabilities of Instagram, and I’m an absolute sucker for the filters. So, I use this hack to add a filter and/or crop an image before sharing it to LinkedIn.

I haven’t done a formal A/B test, but my LinkedIn photos with an Instagram filter perform better than those without. Of course, that could be due to the specific type of content I share and my audience. Your results may differ.

To use Instagram as a photo editor without posting anything, publish a picture while your phone is in Airplane mode.

• First, go to Settings on Instagram, scroll down to Archiving, and download under Your app and media.
• Make sure Save Original Photo is toggled on.

• Next, follow the steps to post a photo to Instagram. Upload the photo, edit it, and press Share.
• An error message will appear saying the upload failed, but you’ll find the edited image in your phone’s photo gallery.

4. Insert line breaks into your bio and captions.

When you write a caption on Instagram, you’ll see that the keyboard doesn’t allow you to press Enter or Return. The same is true for your bio. So, how do all those people put line breaks in there?

Press the 123 key in the bottom left corner of the keyboard, and the Return key will appear on the bottom right.

I know this tip sounds simple, but a lot of people miss it — myself included, until a colleague clued me in. I’ve seen some elaborate solutions for hacking through this problem, like writing the caption copy in another app and then copying and pasting it into Instagram. Thankfully, it’s much simpler than that.

Instagram Optimization Features [+ Tips]

1. Pin important content to the top of your Instagram Grid.

If you have an Instagram post that you want to call attention to, you can pin it to the top of your profile grid.

• Pick the Reel or image post you want to pin.
• Hold down on the post in your grid to open up a menu of options, and select Pin to main grid.
• The post will now stay at the top of your grid.

This is a valuable tool for displaying ongoing partnerships, drawing attention to viral content, and ensuring new followers or browsers can immediately see the most important content you want to share with them.

2. Optimize your Instagram bio to appear in the Explore tab.

Your friends, family, and coworkers might be your first group of Instagram followers, but growing your audience takes more than the people who already know you.

You don’t need a million followers to make an impact. In our 2025 State of Marketing Report, 23% of brands said they saw the most success working with nano-influencers, who have just 1,000-9,999 followers.

One key way to grow your audience impactfully is to have your profile appear on Instagram’s Explore Page.

The Explore Page, accessible by clicking the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your Instagram page, is a browsing page that sorts the entire Instagram community by topic and keyword. These include Fitness, Style, Science, and more.

Hashtagging your posts with these words can expose your content to the people browsing these topics, but you can also use them in your Instagram name and bio to promote your profile.

For example, if Jane Doe is a marketing consultant, she might want to make her Instagram name “Jane Doe Marketing” rather than “Jane Doe.” Then, in her bio, she can include all of her specialties, such as “SEO,” “blogging,” “email marketing,” etc.

Pro tip: When you’re looking for suitable hashtags for your content or bio, you should factor in competition in addition to relevance.

To do this, I don’t recommend using the first hashtags that Instagram auto-suggests when you start typing. They’re usually the most competitive (i.e., densely populated with existing content), making it harder for you to stand out.

The good news? All it takes is a little research.

As an example, I searched for hashtags for my pretend abstract artwork business. I searched #abstractart in the Explore search bar and toggled over to Tags to see the results.

I can see that #abstractart has 53.9M posts, which will make it nearly impossible to stand out. As I scroll down, I can see #abstractartistry and #abstractartcommunity at 11.4K and 11.5K posts, respectively.

I like the look of those odds compared to hashtags with millions of existing profiles and content. Those two hashtags would be on my list out of that small selection.

3. Drive traffic to an external website.

The number one challenge cited by marketers in HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report was generating traffic.

Now, Instagram doesn’t make it much easier since clickable URLs aren’t allowed anywhere except the single website box in your bio. If you put a URL in a photo caption, it’ll appear as plain text, meaning users would have to painstakingly copy the URL, open a web browser, and paste or type it there.

One sneaky way to get people to visit your Instagram profile, where that one clickable URL is allowed, is to use your photo captions to encourage people to visit your profile for a link with language like “Link in bio.”

Then, update that URL frequently to point to your latest blog content, YouTube video, product, or offer.

Check out the example below from the food magazine Bon Appétit, which includes a link in its bio that draws people to external Bon Appétit content.

4. Drive traffic to an external website on Stories.

You can add links more easily on Instagram Stories. Here’s how:

• Add a photo to your Story.
• Click the sticker button at the top right (the icon with the smiley face). Here, you can add various elements to your Story, such as location, questions, and GIFs.

• Click Link and enter the URL you want to drive traffic to and the text you want to use in place of the URL.

• Click Done, and now you can customize the sticker design by tapping on it until you find the color and font you prefer.

5. Sell products from Instagram using shoppable posts.

You might already know you can tag people in your Instagram posts as (or after) you post new content. But you can now officially tag products and direct your viewers to a product page to buy what they saw. (This might be good news for you if you’re one of the 49% of marketers who use revenue/sales of products within the Instagram app to determine ROI.)

Pro tip: Speaking of ROI … Why not try HubSpot’s free paid media template to analyze performance and revenue for each media type and source?

To Add an Instagram Business Account:

An Instagram Business account is necessary to publish shoppable posts. You can get one by selecting Edit Profile on your Instagram profile and tapping Switch to professional account, as shown below.

To Tag a Post With Products:

Once you’ve launched an Instagram Business account, you’ll need to enable product tags to use them on a post that depicts a product.

• Navigate to your settings using the gear icon from your profile page, and select Products.
• Tap Continue and follow the prompts to connect a product catalog to your business profile.

With product tags enabled on your Instagram Business account, you can now upload new posts and tag your photos with products you find from your product catalog. Here’s what a shoppable post can look like:

6. Create an auto-complete quick reply for standard responses.

HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report revealed that 20.5% of brands are exploring using social media DMs for customer service in 2025. However, responding to user comments and questions in DMs is incredibly time-consuming.

Fortunately, there’s a hack to streamline the process and make it more efficient. (Note: This only works on Instagram Business accounts.)

You can simply create a one- to two-word phrase that acts as a shortcut to a more extended standard response you might send often.

• To do this, click Business in your Settings, and then Quick Replies.
• Or, click the three-dot chat bubble icon on the bottom of the screen, and then click New Quick Reply.
• Tap the + icon to create a new quick reply, and enter a pre-written response in the Message field.
• You can assign a shortcut keyword for easy use. For instance, you might type “returnpolicy” as the shortcut for a more extended response. (i.e., “Hey there. We’re sorry you don’t love your purchase. Fortunately, we permit 30-day returns, no questions asked. Please send us your order confirmation number to get the process started.”)
• Save the quick reply by tapping the checkmark.
• Once you’ve added a shortcut, you can type the shortcut “returnpolicy” into the comment box to auto-generate the full response.

Source

7. Pin your Instagram post to Pinterest.

I’m an SEO girl at heart. But before I knew what SEO was, I began experimenting with Pinterest to grow my blog traffic.

To get the most from Pinterest, you need to post consistently, and as most content creators know, sometimes you hit a brick wall on the inspiration front.

When I have a creative block with Pinterest content, I like to repurpose old Instagram posts. (And it‘s easier than you think!) I’ve used the following technique to build group boards and direct traffic to my blog.

But here’s the thing: You might not know this hack exists. Why? Well, Instagram doesn’t have a natural integration with many social networks (except Facebook and Threads, considering they are all owned by Meta) for publishing Instagram posts to other social accounts.

However, with respect to Pinterest, image-loving platforms stick together. Here’s a backdoor way to pin your latest Instagram post to Pinterest:

• On the Instagram mobile app, tap a post to view it fully, then tap the paper airplane Share icon.
• Select Copy link to attach the picture’s link to your clipboard.

• Open the Pinterest mobile app — or download it; you’ll need it for this step — and navigate to your profile page.
• If you have downloaded the latest version of Pinterest, it might ask you if you’d like to produce the image from your clipboard as soon as you open the app.
• If not, select the + icon at the top right to add a new pin. You’ll see a menu of options to add your Copied link to a new Pin or board on your profile.

Instagram Reels Features

1. Upload and browse video content on Instagram Reels.

Instagram Reels is one of the most popular features of Instagram to date. In fact, according to HubSpot’s most recent Instagram Engagement Report, 25% of marketers share this post format at least once a day. This makes it the most shared content type on Instagram for marketers, with image posts and stories coming in joint second at 23%.

You can find Instagram Reels by opening the Instagram app and tapping the video icon in the bottom navigation bar. You’ll land on a feed of Reels to watch, including those from people you follow, trending videos, and the most popular creators on the app.

As you view more videos, the algorithm will adapt to your interests and show you Reels relevant to your likes. And naturally, the same goes for your target audience.

The Reels you create are visible on your Profile under the Reels icon. When you want to upload a new Reel, follow the traditional steps to upload an image, but toggle the options at the bottom from Post to Reel.

2. Easily create Reels using the template feature.

Instagram’s native Reels template helps anyone quickly and easily make a Reel. To create a Reel using a template, you can either:

• Find a Reel you like that someone has created using a template, tap on the three dots on the bottom right corner of the reel, tap Use as template, and follow the steps. (Note: the only Reels you can use as a template have the Use as a template button.)

Or

• Start creating a new post, toggle from Post to Reel to see the Templates button.

You will immediately be served recommended and trending templates when you open the Templates window. If you like one and want to save it for the future, you can access it later by toggling from Browse to Saved.

3. Automatically add captions to your Reels and Stories.

The auto-caption feature automatically converts speech into captions for your Reels and Stories.

This feature is crucial for increasing accessibility to your content and allowing people to consume the content without sound.

• Create a Reel and upload it to Instagram.
• Tap Next and then tap the sticker icon.
• Select the Captions sticker. Instagram will automatically transcribe the audio into captions.
• Customize the font, color, text effects, size, and positioning of the captions. You can also edit the transcription by double-tapping a word.

4. Remix Reels to engage with other users.

Remixing a Reel means creating one that includes content from someone else’s Reel. It’s a great way to engage with other users and create side-by-side interaction as a reaction or response to their content.

• To Remix a Reel (on Android and iOS), tap the three dots on the Reel you want to remix and click Remix.

• Click Edit video and choose whether to play your video alongside the original video or after it ends.
• Next, record your Reel and share it on your profile.

If you remix a Reel using side-by-side video, you can mix the audio and add voiceovers, text, and stickers to your Reel and the original Reel.

If you remix a Reel and add your video after the original, you can’t change the audio from the original post. Still, you can adjust the volume level of the original Reel and add a voiceover.

5. Sequence Reels to create a progression.

Sequencing a Reel means stitching multiple clips, including someone else’s, into a single Reel to create a more extended narrative. If you share multiple Reels following the same story, you can stitch those clips together and include relevant content from others.

• To Sequence a Reel, tap the three dots on the Reel you want to sequence and click Sequence.

• You can choose a clip or use the entire Reel. Then, record or upload videos sequentially to tell a story.

6. Reply to a comment on your Reel with a Reel.

Instagram allows people to create Reels to reply to comments on Reels. It’s an engaging way to interact with followers and build connections.

• To do this (on Android and iOS), tap Reply underneath a comment and click the camera icon.

• Record your Reel or upload a pre-recorded video from your camera roll.

• Click on the comment sticker to update the background color or change its position in the frame.
• Edit your Reel, then click Share.

Instagram Stories Features

1. Use Notes to share status updates.

Notes are 60-character max posts next to profile images in the messages inbox.

Notes will appear in your followers’ inboxes, and you can choose to share them with all of your followers or your selected Close Friends list. They last 24 hours, and Notes replies appear as DMs.

The new feature is a great way to share your timely thoughts, engage with people, and see what others are saying.

2. Create a collection of saved posts.

In addition to being able to view all of the posts you’ve liked, Instagram also has an option to save or bookmark certain posts in collections that you create.

• Start by going to your settings and selecting Saved under How to use Instagram.
• Next, press the + button and name your new collection.

• Click Next, and select posts from your Saved section.
• Tap the bookmark icon below the post you want to save to add posts directly into a collection. This automatically saves it to Saved, but you can also immediately add it to one or more collections, as seen below:

3. Create Stories Highlights to show Stories for longer than a day.

Like in Snapchat, posts to your Story only stick around for your followers to see for 24 hours. But sometimes, you have a Story that deserves more daylight.

That’s where Stories Highlights comes in. Instagram’s feature allows you to save stories together in the same space on your profile page by using the New button with the + icon below your profile image.

• To make a Stories Highlight, tap the New option and select any number of past stories in your album:

• Then, give it a cover photo and a name to display as its own Instagram Story on your profile page. Finally, click Add to make your new Highlight live.

• You can remove Stories Highlights any time by holding down on the icon and selecting Delete highlight.

4. Reorder Instagram Stories Highlights.

The Highlights on your Instagram feed act as your brand’s portfolio — you can use Highlights to demonstrate your company’s values, showcase new products or services, or categorize various topics you post about frequently.

For instance, sister foodie influencers @sistersnacking have Highlights to compile their top eats in various destinations, such as New York City, San Francisco, and Japan, as well as their original recipes.

Since a user can only see the first five Highlights when they come across your profile, you’ll want to ensure your first Highlights are the ones you’re most proud of. To do this, simply follow this trick:

• Hold down the Highlight you’d like moved to the front of this list and click Edit Highlight when the slide-up appears.

• Next, find an image or video you’d like to add to the Highlight. (Don’t worry — you’ll be able to delete this within 30 seconds, so you don’t need to choose one that will stay on the Highlight.)

• Click Done in the top right corner.
• Now, your Highlight will be first in the list. To remove the image or video you just added, follow the above instructions and simply uncheck the image you added. Your Highlight will remain at the beginning of the Highlight reel.

5. Change your Instagram Highlights icon without publishing it to your feed.

The image you choose for each Highlight should accurately depict what type of content users can expect to see if they tap it, so you’ll want to select a compelling, engaging image.

However, if you have a design, logo, or image you‘d like to use that isn’t in your Instagram feed, you can still make it the Highlight Icon.

• To do this, hold down on the Highlight and click Edit Highlight (same as the step above).

• Next, click Edit cover and click on the gallery icon to open up your entire photo library.

• Once you choose an image from your camera roll, click Done. Your Highlight cover image is now an image you’ve never posted on your Instagram account.

6. Schedule posts in advance.

Given that Instagram is a mobile app, you’re probably in a routine of taking photos and posting them to your Instagram Story on the fly. But you can also pre-post them from your computer for a set day and time in the future.

If you have an Instagram business account, this feature is available with a social media scheduling tool, as well as HubSpot.

If you have this business profile, switch to it via the Instagram mobile app and follow the prompts to connect it to Facebook. You might not need to follow this step depending on the social scheduling tool.

Once you’ve toggled to the correct account, launch the scheduling tool, navigate to the current connected profiles, and see Instagram as an available integration.

Note: A word of warning when it comes to scheduling posts on Instagram — I tell you this from experience managing Instagram accounts for international clients — make sure you set your scheduling tool to the client’s time zone rather than yours.

I once created and scheduled some beautiful content, which was met with crickets. Why? It went out at an appropriate time on my end, but it was an unsociable time for the client and their audience. Doh!

Pro tip: Check out this post for the best days and times to schedule content on Instagram and other social channels.

7. Use “Type Mode” to enhance your Instagram Stories.

Since its launch, Stories have become quite creative, and it takes more than a pretty filter to stand out to your audience.

Enter type mode — an option similar to Snapchat that gives you the power to caption Stories that need extra context to resonate with someone. Here’s how to use it:

• Open Instagram Stories by swiping right from your Instagram feed. This will launch your smartphone camera.
• Take a photo or video, or upload one from your camera roll. Then, press the Aa icon at the top of the screen.

• The Aa icon will open Type Mode, with 14 fonts to choose from. I used the Poster font below:

• Next, choose from four text animations, such as typewriter.

You can also add various text effects, such as giving the text a pixelated look.

• Lastly, you can change the text alignment to right, left, and center, and add a text backdrop color to help it pop against the image background.

8. Post content from other users to your Instagram Story.

Although Instagram Stories are a great way to amplify your content on your followers’ homepages, you might not always have something Story-worthy.

In those times, you can share an engaging, inspiring, or relevant post from someone else through your Instagram Stories. Here’s how:

• Find a post you want to share in your Instagram Stories and tap the paper airplane icon, as shown below.

• This icon will open a screen allowing you to send this post to specific followers or add it to your Story. Click Add to story.

On the Story, you can customize the size of the post. Also, tap the image to show a preview of the post caption.

Instagram User Preferences Features [+ Tips]

1. Mute Instagram notifications.

You have the power to turn off all app notifications by either temporarily pausing notifications or turning on Sleep mode. Using Sleep mode adds a badge to your profile so people know you’re taking a break. When you turn these modes off, you’ll get a roundup of notifications of things you’ve missed.

• Navigate to Settings and activity on your profile page. Click Notifications. You’ll see two options at the top.

• Pause all notifications temporarily pause notifications for anywhere from 15 minutes to 8 hours.

• Turning on Sleep mode turns off notifications indefinitely until you turn it off again. You can also set a timer to automatically turn on Sleep mode at a specific schedule, such as weekdays from 9 PM to 9 AM.

2. Create a Favorites list to see your favorite accounts first.

If you have favorite accounts on Instagram or friends whose content you want to see more often, you can select up to 50 accounts to add to your Favorites list.

You’ll see their posts higher up and more often in your feed, and you can even swipe to a separate favorites-only feed to see what people are up to.

Every Favorites feed is free of ads and suggested posts. Better yet, nobody else knows who you’ve added to the list.

• To choose your favorites, tap the Instagram logo on the top left corner of the Instagram feed and select Favorites.

• In the Favorites window, tap the three lines with stars in the top right corner. This will bring you to a window where you can add accounts by clicking the + icon or searching for a handle.

3. Get notifications when your favorite people post.

Never want to miss an Instagram post from your favorite influencers or brands again? I have great news for you: You can choose to get a notification every time a specific user posts a new photo. All you have to do is turn on notifications for each user individually.

To turn on these notifications, visit a user’s profile, click the bell icon in the upper right corner, and choose the post type you want a notification for: Posts, Stories, Reels, or Live videos.

It’s important to note that you must enable notifications from the Instagram app in your phone’s settings — here’s how.

• To allow notifications on iPhone/iPad, go to Settings, then Notifications. Choose Instagram and then turn on the setting to Allow Notifications.
• To allow notifications on Android, go to Settings, then choose Apps, then Instagram. Select the option to show notifications.

Want to turn off post notifications? Just follow the same steps by returning to the bell icon and toggling off the notifications.

4. Hide photos you’ve been tagged in.

When someone tags you in a photo or video on Instagram, it’s automatically added to your profile under Photos of You, unless you opt to add tagged photos manually (see the next tip).

• To see the posts you’ve been tagged in, go to your own profile and click the person icon on the same line as the grid and Reels icons.
• Next, click on an individual post (in your tagged photos) and click the three dots in the top right.

• Tap Post options, then Remove me from post or Hide from my profile. The first removes your tag, and the second removes it from your tagged photos.

5. Adjust your settings to approve tagged photos before they appear on your profile.

As mentioned in the previous step, when someone tags a photo or video of you on Instagram, it‘s automatically added to your profile.

But you can change your Instagram settings to manually select which photos you’re tagged in that show up on your profile.

• To manually approve tagged posts, navigate to Settings and Activity, and tap Tags and mentions under How others can interact with you.
• Here you will see options to change who can tag and @mention you. Toggle on Manually approve tags.

6. Hide ads you don’t find relevant.

Instagram tries to show you ads that are interesting and relevant to you. You might see ads based on people you follow and things you like on Instagram or the third-party websites and apps you visit.

If you see sponsored posts you don’t find relevant, you can let Instagram know and slowly teach its algorithm what you like and don’t like to see.

To hide ads on Instagram, tap on the three dots to the right of a post labeled Sponsored, and choose Why you’re seeing this ad to hide it.

From there, it’ll ask you to share why you don’t want to see the ad anymore.

You can also opt out of seeing ads based on sites and apps from Instagram and Facebook from your device’s settings.

Note that even if you choose to opt out of seeing these types of ads, you’ll still see ads based on your Instagram and Facebook activity.

• To limit ad tracking on an iPhone/iPad, go to Settings and choose Privacy & Security, then Apple Advertising. From there, choose the option to turn off personalized ads.
• To turn off interest-based ads on Android, go to Google Settings, then Ads. From there, choose the option Turn off interest-based ads.

7. Send photos privately to your friends.

Posting photos with all of your followers or with the public isn’t the only way to share content on Instagram. You can share them with individual or multiple users, like a Facebook message or group chat.

You can either send a new photo to friends or one that you or someone else has already posted.

• To send a new photo privately, click the Direct Messenger icon at the top right of your Instagram feed. This will open up your DMs with individuals and groups.
• Click on the user or group with whom you’d like to share a photo or video. At the bottom, you will see options to take a new photo or video or to pull one from the camera roll.

• To send an existing post, tap the paper airplane icon next to a post in feed. This will open Share settings, with suggested users and groups to directly message the post to.
• Click as many as you’d like and add a personalized message, if you like, before hitting Send. The post will be sent separately to each user and group.

User Search Features

1. Search Instagram users without an account.

As much as Instagram would like everyone to ultimately create an account for themselves or their business, people can still peruse the many accounts of brands, people, and dogs without an account to see if it’s worth signing up.

There are two ways to search for people on Instagram without logging in:

Enter a Username at the End of the Instagram URL:

The first way to search users without an account is by using an Instagram handle you already know and adding it to the end of “www.instagram.com/.”

For example, our Instagram username is simply “HubSpot.” You can enter the following into your browser’s address bar: www.instagram.com/hubspot, which brings you directly to HubSpot’s Instagram profile without needing to log in or sign up.

Google Them in an Instagram Site Search:

A slightly “hackier” way of looking up users without needing an Instagram account is to simply search their name in a Google site search.

This means telling Google to only look up search terms on a website of your choice (in this case, Instagram).

To site-search for a user, open a Google search and type the following: “site:instagram.com [name of user].”

By keeping all the text prior to the brackets in your search bar, you can shuffle through the names of people and businesses, and Google will produce results that are live only on Instagram. Here’s what a site search looks like for HubSpot.

As you can see, Google produces our main profile and our culture-focused HubSpot Life profile. As I scrolled down the search results, I also saw Instagram posts that include the #hubspot hashtag and our HubSpot Academy Page.

2. Look through pictures without accidentally liking them.

It‘s pretty easy to learn how to like something on Instagram — so easy, in fact, that people do it accidentally: It’s just a quick double tap of the photo once you’ve entered its full view.

The thing is, it’s so easy to do quickly by mistake. And there’s nothing worse than being deep in an Instagram stalking session and accidentally liking someone’s post from 2013.

So, here’s a quick cheat for you: To look through someone’s photos without “double-tap paranoia,” scroll through Instagram feeds with your phone set to airplane mode. Without internet access, you won’t be able to like a photo, even if you accidentally double-tap it.

The pictures won’t load if you start in airplane mode, though. You’ll have to go to the feed first to load the posts, turn on airplane mode, and then start scrolling.

When you reach the end of the first rows of posts and want to load more, simply turn Airplane mode off, let more posts load, and then turn it on again. Cumbersome? A little, but it could be worth the stress mitigation.

• To turn on airplane mode on an iPhone/iPad, swipe down from the top of the screen and click the airplane icon. Or, go to Settings and toggle on Airplane Mode.
• To turn on airplane mode on an Android device, swipe down from the top of the screen. Then, swipe from right to left until you see Settings, and then touch it. Touch Airplane Mode to turn it on.

3. Browse posts from certain locations.

One fun thing you can do on Instagram is browse photos and videos from a specific location or taken near your current location. I like to do that when I’m planning a trip or want to check out a new restaurant and scroll through the pictures taken there.

You can search for a specific destination or click a geotag on an existing photo.

To search for a specific place:

• Tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your home screen to open the general search page.
• Type in a place to see content most relevant to the place you searched, including the most popular Reels, accounts, audios, tagged photos, and locations.

To use geotags:

• Click on the location in a post that you want to further explore. You can find the location directly under the handle name above the photo or video.
• This will bring you to a page like this, where you can see Top and Recent Posts with that location tag.

How to Get Verified on Instagram

A verified badge (the blue check beside a celebrity or brand account name) tells users that you’re, in Instagram’s candid words, “the authentic presence of a notable public figure, celebrity, global brand or entity it represents.”

For instance, there are plenty of “Reese Witherspoon” fan pages on Instagram, but there’s only one real Reese Witherspoon account, as verified by the blue badge:

To request a verified badge, you must be:

• An authentic public figure, celebrity, brand, or organization.
• Unique, and not a fan or impersonation account.
• A complete, public profile with a bio and profile picture.
• A notable, well-known entity featured in multiple news sources.

Instagram Hacks & Features: My Final Thoughts

I might be biased, but Instagram is one of the most fun (and visually appealing) social apps around. Aside from personal use, you can use Instagram to enhance your brand’s presence.

It’s no surprise that 31% of marketers surveyed for HubSpot’s 2024 Instagram Engagement Report post on their brand’s account multiple times a week. On the other end of the spectrum, 23% of marketers post multiple times a day.

At first, I found the latter statistic surprising, but with features like Reels and Stories, it makes more sense. There are endless opportunities to post different content styles throughout the day to keep followers engaged.

Overall, my favorite Instagram marketing hacks are post-scheduling and using the platform with Pinterest. From a personal and business perspective, I love that you can benefit from Instagram’s filters without posting on your account.

That said, all of the tricks in this post can help you use Instagram to an even fuller extent. Keep these in your back pocket to make the most of this platform.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.