I know that many of you use the free Instagram app to upload photos to social media. However, the app is designed for taking, editing and sharing images on mobile phones and devices rather than computers.
Consequently, you cannot use a PC or Mac to enhance your pictures by using the filters and special effects of the mobile app.
This has disappointed many users. Ideally they would like to take pictures with a high quality digital camera, plug the memory card into their computer and upload images to Instagram, using the app’s special effects to enhance them. Unfortunately this simply wasn’t possible, until recently.
The people at Instagram listened to the complaints and concerns of their customers and in 2016 came up with an answer. Instagram for Windows was made available in the Microsoft store. However, it only works with computers running Windows 8 or 10.
So is there a workaround for older PCs and Macs? If you are running an older version of Windows you can try downloading an app called Gramblr. For Mac users you can try using a mobile phone emulator. This simulates a mobile phone operating system allowing you to run mobile apps on your computer.
One such emulator is the Blue Stacks App Player. Once the app is installed, simply search for Instagram and install it on your computer. This will allow you to see photos other Instagram users have uploaded but you will need to install a media uploader to be able to upload your own images.
Finally, there is a low tech method – email. Simply email the photo you wish to share to yourself then access the email on your mobile device and put it into Instagram.