Instagram update: Uploading through desktop is now available to some users

Instagram has been one of the social media platforms that were initially meant to be used on smartphones. While the company, now owned by Facebook, has added the option to open profiles on desktop, uploading photos and videos remained exclusively available via mobile devices. But that is about to change soon.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra spotted an update that went live on Instagram on Thursday. A new button with a boxed plus sign icon was added on the upper-right side of the screen when Instagram is used in desktop mode. The new button turns out to pave the way for the new create and publish feature.

Per Navarra’s posts, hovering over the new button will reveal its function that reads, “Now you can create and share posts directly from your computer.” To upload, Instagram desktop users can drag selected files to a New Post window or use the Select From Computer button to browse through folders on their computer.

Instagram users will be able to add a caption or geo-tag to the media file to be uploaded. There is also an accessibility feature where users uploading a photo or video can add descriptions that will likely be dictated for persons with visual impairments. Instagram also allows users to turn off the comments section before uploading a file.

Desktop users will not miss out on the ways to customize their Instagram uploads. The new desktop feature also offers social media users to choose from an array of image filters that Instagram popularized. It is still unknown if image compression will be an issue, but the report also confirms people can choose the image’s upload size with options including its original size, Square or 1:1 ratio, Portrait or 4:5 ratio, and Landscape or 16:9 ratio.

Editing tools that are available on the Instagram app are also carried over the desktop version with the same navigation. There will slide bars to adjust the image’s brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, fade, and vignette.

In a statement to Engadget, Instagram confirmed that the desktop upload feature is still being tested so it may not be available to some users yet. “We know that many people access Instagram from their computer,” Instagram said. “To improve that experience, we’re now testing the ability to create a Feed post on Instagram with their desktop browser.”

Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash