January 21, 2020June 27, 2023

How to Post on Instagram from a Browser Window – A Complete Guide

Instagram’s website still does not offer an official method of posting photos from your computer to the social network. But it’s still possible! Once you have learned the process, editing images on your computer, and then downloading them to your phone is an unnecessary, time-consuming process that is simply not required.

While the inability to post while logged into Instagram using a web browser is a hassle, this is Instagram’s intentional move to promote use of the mobile app and interaction with other users. Nevertheless, the process of manually sending image files from your computer to phone in order to post can be very time-consuming for many photographers, influencers and companies whose material has been taken or captured on a camera.

Fortunately, through the use of third-party software or clever desktop hacks, we have several ways to get around this problem. We’ve collected tons of information on how to post to Instagram from a browser on Windows or Mac and put it into this handy guide!

What You’ll Find in This Post

Scheduling From a Desktop
1. Hootsuite
Changing Browser User Agent
1. Chrome
2. Safari
3. Chrome
4. Safari
Facebook Creator Studio
1. Manage Posts
2. Post Insights
3. Manage Posts
4. Post Insights

Scheduling from a Desktop

Getting Started with Hootsuite

Using Hootsuite, you can easily post photos and videos from your desktop to Instagram, and you can choose between submitting them immediately or scheduling them for a later time.

Once you make an account and login to Hootsuite, connect your social profiles to publish and schedule content and monitor engagement. Here you are greeted with a customizable dashboard where you can organize your social profiles and set up streams.

Streams

Streams display the content from your social networks in your Hootsuite dashboard. Streams are useful to help monitor conversations and engage with customers.

Each social network offers unique stream types. Search streams are especially valuable for finding social activity around specific pages, hashtags, or keywords. Use tabs to organize your streams into groups.

Connect Social Accounts and Add Streams
1. Select Streams from the launch menu.
2. Click Add Tab in the top-left corner, give it a name, and then press ENTER.
3. Inside each tab, click Add Stream.
4. Select a social network from the list on the left, and then select a profile from the drop-down list.
5. Click the streams you want to add for that profile.
6. Select Streams from the launch menu.
7. Click Add Tab in the top-left corner, give it a name, and then press ENTER.
8. Inside each tab, click Add Stream.
9. Select a social network from the list on the left, and then select a profile from the drop-down list.
10. Click the streams you want to add for that profile.
11. Select Streams from the launch menu.
12. Click Add Tab in the top-left corner, give it a name, and then press ENTER.
13. Inside each tab, click Add Stream.
14. Select a social network from the list on the left, and then select a profile from the drop-down list.
15. Click the streams you want to add for that profile.
16. Select Streams from the launch menu.
17. Click Add Tab in the top-left corner, give it a name, and then press ENTER.
18. Inside each tab, click Add Stream.
19. Select a social network from the list on the left, and then select a profile from the drop-down list.
20. Click the streams you want to add for that profile.
21. Select Streams from the launch menu.
22. Click Add Tab in the top-left corner, give it a name, and then press ENTER.
23. Inside each tab, click Add Stream.
24. Select a social network from the list on the left, and then select a profile from the drop-down list.
25. Click the streams you want to add for that profile.

Screenshot of Hootsuite Dashboard — Hootsuite dashboard

There are three types of streams available for Instagram. Select the streams you wish to add.

Instagram Stream Options
1. My Posts
2. Scheduled
3. Hashtags
4. My Posts
5. Scheduled
6. Hashtags
7. My Posts
8. Scheduled
9. Hashtags

Create a New Post

Click New Post in the top-right corner of the dashboard to build, schedule, and send your posts from the Composer. To post to Instagram with Hootsuite, you’re able to upload files from your device or browse Hootsuite’s Media Library. You can upload images from Dropbox if you have files downloaded on your device.

Screenshot of Hootsuite create new post on instagram — Hootsuite Create New Post

If your images are not the correct size for Instagram, you can click Edit Image below the uploaded picture. Here you can find Hootsuite’s preset dimensions for Instagram posts in portrait and landscape dimensions as well as stories.

Screenshot of Hootsuite image editor — Using the Hootsuite image editor

Schedule Your Post

Once you’ve made any edits, you can write captions for all of your uploads including emojis. You can decide to post the same photo to another social media network or post again on the same networks. Select the corresponding choice depending on how and when you’ like to post.

Posting and Scheduling Options
1. Post now
2. Schedule for later
3. Save as a draft
4. Post and reuse networks
5. Post and duplicate
6. Post now
7. Schedule for later
8. Save as a draft
9. Post and reuse networks
10. Post and duplicate
11. Post now
12. Schedule for later
13. Save as a draft
14. Post and reuse networks
15. Post and duplicate
16. Post now
17. Schedule for later
18. Save as a draft
19. Post and reuse networks
20. Post and duplicate
21. Post now
22. Schedule for later
23. Save as a draft
24. Post and reuse networks
25. Post and duplicate

Screenshot of how to schedule an Instagram post on Hootsuite — Scheduling a post in Hootsuite

Now your photos and videos will appear in the dashboard! Any changes can be easily made by clicking the edit button. Hootsuite also has a calendar view under Publisher to easily keep track of your posting consistency, as well as user-friendly Analytics to monitor the success of your content and inform you of your audience demographics!

Screenshot of Hootsuite publisher — Looking at the calendar in the Hootsuite Publisher

Summary

Hootsuite does much more than simply upload content to Instagram. It was designed to help people manage social media profiles and is constantly adding more features to make the process even simpler.

Changing Browser User Agent

Changing your browser user agent may sound complicated but is actually one of Windows or Mac’s easiest ways of posting to Instagram. It does not require a third-party website or download, and it is completely free. While the method is very basic, uploading video files or gallery posts does not work.

Disclaimer

I use a Mac so the screenshots will differ for Windows users, but all the information should be the same!

Chrome

This will open the Developer tools panel. Depending on the layout of your screen and browser, it might pop up in a separate tab, on the side of your active tab, or at the bottom of your active tab.

You’ll see a lot of code, menus, and tabs. You can safely ignore nearly all of this and simply look for at the top left.

Click on it and the browser window will now transform to the dimensions of a smartphone or tablet.

You might need to hit refresh for the menu bar at the bottom of the mobile app to show up. Once you see the screen below, it works exactly like the mobile app. You can click on the + icon on the menu bar and create a new post by browsing for a new photo on your computer and uploading it.

Safari

Go to Develop > User Agent > Safari – iOS 12.1.3 – iPhone

If you don’t see the ‘Develop’ menu on Safari, you must enable the ‘Develop’ menu by going to: Safari > Preferences > Advanced and enabling the option ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’.

The page should then refresh with the mobile menu bar at the bottom.

Summary

While this is a simple and free solution to post to Instagram from your computer, there are many limitations. Despite the interface being almost identical to Instagram on mobile, it is missing all its editing tools and the ability to post multiple photos and videos. This is a handy quick fix if your photos are ready to go on your desktop or USB and you don’t have time to transfer them over to your phone!

Facebook Creator Studio

In August 2019, Facebook incorporated native Instagram scheduling into its Creator Studio program, which means that users with an Instagram business profile linked to a Facebook page will be able to post updates to Instagram from their browser. Here is what you can do in Creator Studio, straight from Facebook’s Creator Studio Instagram article:

The Instagram section in Creator Studio lets you manage all of your Instagram posts and get insights from a computer. To manage your Instagram in Creator Studio, go to Creator Studio and click , located next to at the top of your screen.

Screenshot of Facebook Creator Studio on posting on Instagram — Managing Instagam posts with Facebook Creator Studio

Manage Posts
1. Access all your video, photo, carousel, stories and IGTV content.
2. See how your posts are performing to learn what’s working and what’s not.
3. Search for content to easily find it and use filters to quickly organize it.
4. Access all your video, photo, carousel, stories and IGTV content.
5. See how your posts are performing to learn what’s working and what’s not.
6. Search for content to easily find it and use filters to quickly organize it.
7. Access all your video, photo, carousel, stories and IGTV content.
8. See how your posts are performing to learn what’s working and what’s not.
9. Search for content to easily find it and use filters to quickly organize it.

Explore Insights
1. Understand who your followers are and when they’re most active.
2. See what actions people take when they engage with your content
3. Discover the reach and total impressions of your content.
4. Understand who your followers are and when they’re most active.
5. See what actions people take when they engage with your content
6. Discover the reach and total impressions of your content.
7. Understand who your followers are and when they’re most active.
8. See what actions people take when they engage with your content
9. Discover the reach and total impressions of your content.

A unique aspect of Creator Studio is how you can schedule and upload IGTV videos.

Screenshot of posting an instagram story or IGTV on facebook creator studio — Creator Studio IGTV

This is a great free alternative to uploading from Windows or Mac to Instagram, but it’s limited if you’re running mass content on Instagram, as they don’t provide a bulk upload option to create multiple posts at once.

Another drawback of this app is the inability to edit scheduled posts. If you needed to make changes to captions or tags, you’ll need to remove the original post and make a new one. Time consuming work like this can defeat the purpose of posting from the web to Instagram.

Start Posting!

Now that you know how to access Instagram from a browser window and schedule and create posts, it’s time to find out which method works best for you!