Up until this week, posting iPhone photos to Instagram required the Instagram app. Now you can post directly from Photos. Instagram 8.2 finally adds support for Share Sheets, which we’ve been waiting for since iOS 8 was released in 2014!
If you’re like me, this is a big deal. I use Photos to catalog, edit and tweak my photos. I don’t much care for the built-in editing or filter tools in the Instagram app. So being able to post from right within Photos saves me the step of having to open Instagram and post from there. Even if you’re not using Photos but you are dependent on another photo cataloging or editing tool, Instagram’s support for Share Sheets makes it that much easier to integrate Instagram sharing into your workflow.
Here’s how to activate the new Instagram feature.
To add Instagram to your iPhone Share menu
- Make sure to download and install the latest version of Instagram from the App Store.
- Tap Photos.
- Select the photo you wish to export to Instagram. Tap the Share menu icon in the lower left corner.
- The share sheet shows you the list of available services and apps, including Mail, iCloud Photo Sharing, Facebook, Twitter and others. Tap and left-slide until you see More. Tap on More.
- In the Activities window, scroll down the list until you see Instagram. Tap the toggle to turn Instagram on, then tap Done.
- Instagram will now appear in the list of services you can export photos to. You can add a caption and hashtags and post when ready.
The downside of posting to Instagram is that you’re just posting to Instagram. The Instagram app lets you cross post to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr as well. But those services are also supported in Share Sheets – it’s just not a one-stop crossposting shop. If you want to cross-post to different services at once, you’ll still need to use the Instagram app.
