What is Instagram? – Features, How to Use, and More

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a social media platform that highlights photo and video sharing via its mobile app. You can take, edit, and issue visual content for your followers to interact with thorough likes, comments, and shares.

It’s hard to recollect a time before Instagram. If you’re not a share of the one billion on it, you might want to review.

Plus, you can shadow your favorite celebrities or political statistics to see candid photos of their everyday lives.

Additionally, it’s a phenomenal stage for investigating what other brands are doing — for instance, Nike uses the Instagram Stories feature to promote inspirational athlete stories you won’t find anywhere else.

What are the Features of Instagram?

These are the main characteristics of Instagram that you should know:

1. Home Tab

• It is the first tab that you will see when you log in.
• It shows all the latest photos you have published and those shared by the people you follow.
• You can also interact with the images to indicate that you like them or leave a comment.

2. Explore Tab

• Discover the most interesting new photos that the Instagram user community is publishing.
• You can also hunt for users by their names and explore images by hashtags.

3. Camera Tab

• This tab allows you to share photos, either taking new captures with the Instagram camera or using the ones you have saved on your phone.
• You can enhance the photos, add multiple filters, and share them on other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr.

4. News Tab

• In this unit, you will see all the new followers, “likes,” and comments received by your photos and those of the people you follow.

5. Profile Tab

• It is your own space on Instagram, where you can add a short Instagram biography and other contact information.
• Here are all the photos you share, you will see the list of users you follow and who follow you, and you can review your photo map.
• You can also edit your profile and adjust your account settings.

6. Photo Maps

• You will find your photo map in the profile tab.
• This interactive tool helps you look at the places you have visited and where you took each photo, it is an excellent way to share your trips and contextualize your pictures by adding location data.
• After activating it, you can add location tags every time you post a new photo, and the image will appear on the map.
• You can also browse other users’ photo maps and explore the places they’ve been.

7. Web Profiles

• The web Instagram profiles will look at your face or other users without entering a mobile phone.
• You can also edit your profile, although you cannot change the profile photo or share the web images.
• To visit a profile on the web, use this address instagram.com/[username].

How to use Instagram?

1. Download and Install Instagram

• To start, you have to download the application to your mobile device.
• If you take an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you can download it from the Apple App Store and have an Android mobile from the Google Play store.

2. Sign up for Instagram

• Once you have installed the request, open it on your mobile device.
• A window will appear to register or log in. Click the “Register” button.

3. Register on Instagram

• You will have to fill in some needed information to create your new account.
• Enter a username with which you will know, a secure password, and your real name.
• It is also essential to enter an email address that only you will see. Optionally you can add a profile photo and a phone number.
• If you want, you can use your Facebook information. Click “Register” to continue.

4. Complete Registration

• Now find your friends to share your photos with them. Instagram is more than just an application.
• It is also a social network where people interact with each other, and therefore having friends from the beginning is an excellent way to start.
• You can search for your friends on Facebook, those on your contact list, and other social networks. Click the next symbol to continue.

5. Complete Instagram Profile

• As in any social network, a complete profile is much more attractive and will encourage more people to follow you.
• Go to the “Profile” tag and click on the “edit your profile” option, located at the screen’s top.

6. Edit Profile

• You can add a short bio of up to 150 characters to tell your profile visitors about yourself and add your website or blog address if you have one.
• When you have finished, touch the “Send” button.
• To change the profile photo, you have to tap on the photo box on your profile.
• You can choose to instantly take a picture with your mobile, use one that you have saved in the device’s library, or import your profile photo from Facebook or Twitter.

7. Change Profile Picture on Instagram

It is the basis of Instagram and what fuels this social network. To start sharing your photos, click on the “Camera” tab, and choose the source of the image:

Camera: if you select this option, you will be able to take a photo using your mobile device’s camera.

Image Gallery: Choose this option to use an image already saved in your phone’s gallery.

8. Upload a Photo to Instagram

Before sharing your photos, you can enhance them to make them more attractive. At the top of the screen, you will see several options to apply:

Add a frame: Tap the first square icon in the upper left to turn the black frame around the image on or off.

Add the tilt-shift blur effect: Tap the drop icon. It will make a part of the photo stay in focus and clarity while the rest is out of focus, a product widely used to focus attention on a certain point. You can apply linear or circular blur and move the focus area.

Brighten the image: Touch the sun icon to activate the Lux effect, which will add a layer of light to your photo to clarify it.

Rotate the image: Tap the diamond-shaped icon to rotate the image.

9. Apply Filters

• You can also select from a wide variety of filters to apply to your photo. Filters are one of the most popular features of Instagram.
• They give a fresh and exciting touch to even the most superficial images.
• Each filter has a unique property, so you can change the colors and tones of the photos, play with the light and dark, convert them to grayscales, and more.
• You will find the filter gallery at the bottom of the screen, touch each filter, and scroll from left to right to try them all.
• Once you have your image ready, click the double arrows in the screen’s upper corner to continue.

10. Add a Description to your Photos

• On the new screen, you can write a brief description of the image, and if you want to add hashtags, putting the “#” sign before it, as in Twitter.
• Check the option “Add to your photo map” if you want the photo to be automatically added to your map and share the location from where it takes.

11. Share Photos on Social Networks

• If, in addition to publishing your photos on Instagram, you want to share them with your friends on other social nets such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Tumblr, you have to activate each of them, and the photo will publish automatically.
• Although if it is the first time you do it, you will have to connect your accounts, log in with your username and key for each social network, and grant the necessary publication permissions.

12. Possible Problems

• If you don’t remember your password, Instagram offers you two options to recover it.
• When logging in with your account, select the option “Forgot your password?” and choose between changing your password through an email message or your Facebook account.

13. Tips and Advice

• To prevent other people from posting content on your behalf, make sure you have a strong password that only you know.
• Also, be careful with third-party applications that you permit to connect with your account.
• Try to post photos regularly and interact with other users to keep your account active, since Instagram advises that it drops inactive accounts for an extended period.

Conclusion

You can find photos that its authors upload to tell their daily lives, and unique images that professional and amateur photographers share daily on Instagram.

It is a very active community of users who love mobile photography. It has become viral due to the great diversity of filters and effects that can apply to photos and the ease of sharing them on other social networks.
Also Read: License Agreement – Definition, Characteristics, Types, and More

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