[ad_1]
Meta-owned social media platform Instagram with more than a billion users worldwide often gets new features. While you may use many of them, there are lesser-known features you may have slept on despite using Instagram for years. From clearing your Instagram search history to hiding annoying ads, here are some tips and tricks you might not be aware of.
Want to share a post you recently came across with your top contacts on Instagram but feeling too lazy to open the share menu? Instagram has a quick share menu that lets you do just that.
To quickly send posts to your most-contacted people on the platform, simply long press the send button that appears below the post and Instagram will show you the accounts you have interacted the most with, tap on the profile you want to share and you are good to go.
Post photos without cropping them
Instagram automatically crops photos that are bigger than the maximum aspect ratio allowed on the platform, but they may not always look good. While there’s a quick trick that lets you share the whole photo, sometimes the picture may have a white or black background.
To post a picture without Instagram cropping it, open the app and tap on the ‘Plus’ button from the bottom bar. Choose the image you want to share and press the ‘Expand’ button from the left side of the preview. If you have a problem finding it, check the screenshot above to see where it is located.
Create SMS-like quick replies
For business owners, replying to every query in comments and DMs can be a daunting task. Thankfully, Instagram lets users create SMS-like quick responses with one or two-word phrases that act as a shortcut to a longer response.
To do so, head over to the app settings, tap on ‘Business’ and find and click on ‘Quick Replies’. Alternatively, you can also click on the three-dot chat bubble at the bottom of the screen and tap the ‘New Quick Reply’ button. Add a shortcut word that you want to use to type the entire custom response in the ‘Message’ field. Then tap on the save button from the top right and you are done.
If you want to send someone a quick reply, simply type in the shortcut word you used for the reply and the message associated with it will appear. Not only can quick replies save time in the long run, but they enable business owners to be consistent when replying to customers.
Hide annoying advertisements
Instagram shows several ads when scrolling through your feed, and while most of these are okay, you might see some that either do not cater to your interests or are straight-up annoying.
While there is no way to disable ads on Instagram, the Meta-owned platform lets you hide them, following which Instagram will no longer show advertisements to buy the product. To hide ads from stories or your feed, tap on the three dots on the top right of the post or story and select ‘Hide ad’.
Quickly delete all Instagram search history
Similar to Google Search, Instagram’s search tab stores all your search history. While this can be useful at times, sometimes it can be embarrassing, especially when you are searching for something with your friends or family as it shows the list of everything you searched for in the app.
If you are someone who has a long search history and want to start afresh, open Instagram on your phone, tap on your profile picture from the bottom bar and head over to the app settings.
Now, tap on ‘Your Activity’ and on the screen that opens, scroll down and select ‘Recent Searches’. Here, you will find a ‘Clear all’ button at the top right.
[ad_2]
Source link
