Master Instagram

Ben Patterson reveals how to get more from Instagram

The bigger Instagram gets, the more complicated its app becomes. Indeed, it’s easy to miss some of Instagram’s most clever shortcuts, such as the quickest way to ‘heart’ a photo or preview a snapshot in your feed.

There’s also a way to see your geotagged photos on a map – or wipe them off the map, for that matter. You can set your account to private, block unwanted followers, and erase tags of yourself that others have added to their photos. You can even get alerts when your favourite Instagrammers posts new photos – an important feature now that Instagram

wants to change the way it arranges recent images in your photo feed.

1. Set your account to private

One of the biggest surprises awaiting an Instagram newcomer is the first time a complete stranger “likes” one of their snapshots. It’s a jarring reminder that by default, all the snapshots you post on Instagram are public.

If you don’t want the entire world flipping through your Instagram photos, you can set your account to ‘private’. Doing so puts all your Instagram photos behind a privacy wall, meaning only your existing followers will be able to see them. Also, once you set your account to private, no one else on Instagram will be able to follow you without your approval.

Just tap the Profile button in the bottom corner of the main Instagram interface, tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen, then flip the Private Account switch.

2. Block random strangers from following your account

So, you’ve set your account to private, but not before a few strangers or frenemies followed your account. You can give them the heave-ho in a few simple steps. Tap the Profile button in the bottom corner of the screen, tap Followers, then tap the name of someone you don’t want flipping through your photos. Now,tap the gear icon in the top corner of the screen, then tap Block User.

Once that’s done, the blocked users won’t be able to view your snapshots anymore (and no, they won’t be notified that you blocked them).

3. Quickly ‘like’ a photo

One of the principle pleasures of Instagram is scrolling through your Home feed, gazing at the latest snapshots of the users you’re following.

If there’s a picture you particularly like, you can tap the little heart button just below the image.

Even better, though, you can like a photo the way Instagram experts do: Just give it a quick double-tap.

4. See every photo you’ve ever liked

Liking snapshots on Instagram can get addicting – so addicting, in fact, that it’s easy to lose track of all the pictures you’ve liked. To take a look at your history of ‘hearted’ photos, tap the Profile button, tap the gear icon in the top corner of the screen, then tap Photos You’ve Liked option.

Bonus tip: You can always ‘unlike’ a photo by tapping the heart button again. (No, double-tapping a liked snapshot won’t unlike it)

5. Long-press to preview a photo

If you tap the Search tab at the bottom of the Instagram interface, you’ll land on the Explore page – a grid of dozens of Instagram photos liked by your friends and followers as well as by all your fellow Instagrammers.

You can tap any photo on the Explore screen to see a full-screen version, but there’s also a way to quickly preview a photo: tap and hold it. When you do, a larger version of the image will appear on the screen, and it’ll stay there until you release the image. You can push a photo preview up a bit to lock it in place and reveal three options: Like, Comment, and Send as Message (to another Instagram user).

6. Single-tap a photo to see people tags

Just like on Facebook, you can tag people in Instagram photos; indeed, you’ll be prompted to do so whenever you post a new picture on your Instagram profile. While viewing other photos, you might see a little circle with a blank silhouette in the bottom corner of the image. If you do, it means that the image has been tagged. Just tap the image to reveal the tags, then tap a tag to jump to that user’s Instagram profile.

7. See every Instagram photo in which you’ve been tagged, and remove yourself from a tagged photo

Tap the Profile button in the bottom corner of the screen, then tap the ‘photos of you’ button (it’s the one that looks like a tag with a silhouette inside) near the top-right corner of the screen.

Now, let’s say you find you’ve been tagged in a photo you don’t want to be tagged in, or that a