Instagram is one of the most used social networks today and with more users and possibilities. But it has a drawback: it can only be used from the mobile phone and it is not cross-platform. Luckily, there are many tools to upload photos to Instagram from the PC without having to resort to your smartphone and expanding the possibilities.
Whether you are a professional or simply uncomfortable depending on your smartphone to upload photos to Instagram, you can do it from your computer. There are tools, tricks, and options for this. Some are paid but others will allow us to do it for free or, at least, will facilitate our day-to-day work.
See Instagram Web
Instagram Web allows us to see profiles of users who we follow in our Instagram account but, in addition, it allows all kinds of uses from the browser: we can like, leave comments, respond to comments, see Instagram Stories, unfollow users, follow new users or send and receive direct messages on our account. Unfortunately, it does not allow us full control of our profile. We cannot create feed posts or upload Instagram stories, nor can we view statistics, for example. It is only used to consult but not to manage an account, which makes it somewhat incomplete.
Trick to upload photos and stories
There is a trick that allows us to upload photos to Instagram from the browser using Instagram Web. We can upload photos or videos to our profile by converting the web version into a “mobile” version that simulates the phone. It is not a very complete tool but we can do it for free, without installing anything and simply from the browser:
- Open Instagram in your computer browser
- Right click anywhere on the screen
- Tap on “Inspect” in the menu that appears on the screen
- On the side, the browser developer options will appear
- Choose the mobile format button in the upper left corner: Toggle Device Toolbar
Once you have done this, the web design will change to mobile format. But it often happens that the button to upload a publication does not appear yet. So update and refresh the page until you see the “+” at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t update the first time, please do it again. Finally, you will see that it simulates your mobile phone and you can upload whatever you want.
Tap on the “+” at the bottom to add an image or video to the feed or on the camera at the top left to upload a story. The interface is identical to the mobile phone and you can add GIFs, music, stickers, write on the image …
When you have it, post. You will see on your mobile that it has been published correctly.
HootSuite
It is probably the best tool to manage social networks although you will have to pay for it. It is essential for anyone who is dedicated to it thanks to the fact that you can have all the social networks in the same tool. You can use Instagram from your computer but also Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and you can have all the details of the accounts at a single glance, which will help you organize and plan any social network.
Price
The problem, as we say, is that you have to pay. Currently the price of Hootsuite in its most basic model is 39 euros per month with up to 10 social profiles and a 30-day free trial. For companies there are more expensive and complete models such as the Team model with 109 euros per month with 20 available social profiles or three different users. Both include 30 days free to see if it really works for you and is what you are looking for.
Tools
It allows automated programming of publications, up to ten profiles in different social networks or advertising spending from the app itself. You have a main monitor or dashboards where you can add columns, follow users, trends, hashtags …
It is recommended for professionals or if you want to invest time and effort in social networks but it is not the best option if you are simply looking for basic and free tools to upload photos to Instagram from your PC for leisure or for your personal account.
Sked Social
Sked Social is a good and complete tool for uploading photos to Instagram from your PC as well as managing several accounts at the same time from the same screen or user. You can upload photos and videos and access the same filters or editing options that you usually have on your phone. You can program, save groups of hashtags for your images or access activity statistics for the account or its profile.
Not only will you have to be aware of publishing the photos or videos at the moment, but it also has the possibility of programming or the multiplatform auto-post that allows you to also upload on Facebook, Twitter, Google or LinkedIn as you need. Another of the main advantages is that it allows us to plan the feed: we can see how it would look depending on what we upload and we would check if it achieves a harmony worthy of influencer.
As in the previous case, Sked Social is paid. There are three different payments and they all have a seven-day free trial. The basic price is 22 euros per month with monthly payment or 18 euros per month with annual payment. Allows one user and up to three Instagram accounts. You can also find more expensive and complete plans (more accounts, more options) for 66 euros per month or for 120 euros per month depending on whether you choose the Essential or Professional plan.
Later
Later is also paid, like the previous ones, but it has the option of being used for free if you simply want to upload content from an account. There are limits in the free version but it is very interesting if you are looking for something free: it includes a social network, thirty posts per profile and a single user. It has no cost but you will have to register to start using it from the browser itself. The first thing it will ask you is to create an account. Once done, you will have to link it to your Instagram feed (confirming with the security code if you have two-step verification) and you will start planning your account.
This tool is the most interesting if you are looking for something free. You will have to choose the category of your Instagram profile or the “industry” to which it belongs depending on whether you want to dedicate yourself to makeup, tourism, fashion, etc. The application will ask you a series of questions that you must fill in so that it adapts as much as possible to your way of communicating or creating content. Once you have everything ready, you will have a publication planner and synchronize with the mobile app.
Later allows you to access a visual calendar with the different publications of each day and how they will appear in your feed, you can search for hashtags with which to reach a maximum audience or you can access statistics if you want to know if your strategy is working.
If it convinces you and you want to use it more, you can customize a plan to your liking . One of its advantages is that we can choose what we need for our plan, although there are also some predefined ones. The most basic payment includes $ 12.50 per month with a total of sixty posts per profile and a single user. If you want more, you can use the Growth plan for $ 20.83 per month and a maximum of 150 posts per social network and three users.
Iconsquare
Iconsquare has a free trial period of fourteen days that you can use without entering a payment method. Then you will have to pay. Fourteen days in which we can test a tool that seeks to achieve a larger audience, go further, tell us what is our best time to upload photos to Instagram or that allows us to manage several profiles from a single platform, both from Instagram and from other networks social.
You can have a calendar with the schedules planned for the next days of the week and organized by hours, you can see the best tags or hashtags to include in the publications or you can have analytics with the engagement of each photo or video you upload. It is one of the most complete tools but, unfortunately, it is paid. It allows many options and its basic plan goes from 29 euros per month with annual payment or 39 euros per month with monthly payment. This basic plan allows us to have three different profiles, two users, analytics, conversations, social media post scheduler … There are also more complete plans that will allow us to have more social profiles or more detailed reports of our audience.
Combine Platforms: Alternatives
Editing photos on the mobile phone is not always comfortable, especially in the case of making original designs for stories, for example. In that case, we can combine platforms. For example, you can make your stories edited on the computer and download them from the phone to upload them directly without the need for payment plans or the previous tools. There are some tools that synchronize automatically and will make this process of synchronization between computer and mobile much easier.
Canva is one of the most complete tools when it comes to making designs for Instagram for both Instagram Stories and for the feed as well as for the Reels in the application. The advantage is that you can use it in the browser and on the mobile and in a matter of seconds it is synchronized. Therefore, you can use all the tools that it offers in its computer version to make an image (either with a free or premium account) and automatically download it to your phone and upload it to Instagram. You will be able to edit comfortably from the computer in the browser to add photographs or elements from the Internet and have the result on your smartphone in less than five seconds, uploading it to the social network as usual.
