Overcome the limitations imposed by Instagram and post photos and videos from your computer.
Officially, Instagram does not allow its users to post photos and videos from a desktop computer. But the social network bought by Facebook in 2012 relaxed its rules a few months ago by allowing its users to post photos from their smartphone’s web browser.
Posting on Instagram from your PC or Mac then becomes very easy. To do this, you just have to make the website you visit believe that you are viewing it from a mobile platform, by modifying the user-agent, also known as the user agent. This allows you to identify yourself on the site you are visiting so that the page display adapts to the screen of the device used.
Changing the user agent of your browser can be done very easily using a browser extension. We use in our example Google Chrome, and the User-Agent Switcher extension also developed by Google to perform the manipulation:
1. Download User-Agent Switcher
From your Google Chrome browser, download and install the User-Agent Switcher extension. A small icon of a blank page with a mask should appear at the top right of Chrome’s address bar.
Download User-Agent Switcher for Google Chrome (Free)
2. Modify the user-Agent
Click on the extension icon. The list of all platforms that the extension is able to simulate is displayed. Choose a mobile, iOS or Android platform, and select the platform you want to simulate.
3. Go to Instagram
Go now to the Instagram website. You should see the mobile website for the social network.
4. Publish from the browser
The interface of the mobile web version of Instagram is very similar to the interface of the app. Click on the “+” button located at the bottom middle of the toolbar, and choose the image to publish via Windows File Explorer.
5. Apply your settings and publish
Make your changes as you would from the mobile application, choose a filter, and click the “Next” button. Enter a description, add your hashtags and possibly locate your post and validate by clicking on “Share”.