Instagram has been adding a couple of new features lately, all designed to help you share more images.
Back in August 2016, they added Stories, designed to be a temporary slideshow of the day’s moments.
Now they’ve added a new feature that lets you share up to 10 photos as once as a gallery in a single post. It’s often known as the carousel post feature.
Multiple Photos, One Post
A group of photos shared this way is considered one post. That has a few important effects.
Firstly, it will be represented as a single thumbnail on your profile and feed.
Secondly, any filters you apply or captions you write will apply to all the photos in the series. So you can’t change the filter or caption from photo. An exception is with tagging people in the photo–you can do that for each photo individually.
Thirdly, if you decide to delete the post, it deletes all the photos in it.
How to Do It
There’s no real trick to using the feature–you simply have to hit one more button as part of the upload process. There’s a new “Select Multiple” button that’s part of the normal upload screen. Just tap that:
You’ll then get the option to select up to 10 photos:
Each image you add will be indicated in the top right corner of its thumbnail. Tap and hold to change the order.
Once you’ve selected them, it moves on to the filter. It’s important to note that whatever filter you choose is applied to all of the photos in the sequence–you can’t set it individually.
The same holds true with captions–the same one applies to every image in the sequence. (You can, however, tag people in individual photos.)
How it Looks
When it first launched, Instagram’s gallery feature only worked with square images. In August 2017, they added the ability to display rectangular images in both landscape and portrait orientations.
There are only very subtle visual differences to indicate that it’s a multi-part post rather than a single-image post. The display sizes are the same as regular single posts.
On a desktop through a web browser, the thumbnail still displays in a square that’s 293 by 293 pixels.
And the enlarge image shows in a box that’s 600 by 600 pixels (stretched, and not retina).
Through a browser, you get new left and right arrows when you hover over the image, and there’s a small navigation indicator just under the image.
On the phone app, it’s even more subtle. There’s the small navigation bar under the image, and you can swipe left to right to move through the slideshow.
Square Only
Instagram enabled rectangular photos for single-image posts some time ago, but this feature only works with square. Instagram says this limitation is “for now.”
Panoramas
This also opens a nifty new opportunity for a better way to share panoramas by splitting them up into tiles that the viewer can then swipe through.
Hi David,
I’m new to Instagram. I’m a Crafter/Artist and I have found myself in a predicament since Covid-19 has caused all the Christmas Bazaars to be canceled leaving many of us with inventory so we are looking for a place to sell our merchandise as Christmas Gifts. Is there a way to post what we want to sell on Instagram? How long will our pictures be visible and can potential customers contact us?
It’s possible, but it’s not an ideal place to sell things. That’s because you can’t link directly from a post to your sales page. What you can do is post an image of your item and add a caption. But the caption can be text only–you can include the text URL, but it’s not an active link–when users click (or tap) on it, nothing will happen. As a workaround, you can use the one place where you are able to use an active link: in your profile information link. Some users simply change that link every time they post, but that can get tedious if you’re doing it often. Others use a link aggregation tool like LinkTree. It works best if you build a dedicated following. It doesn’t work well as a place if you’re expecting people to discover your products through a web search–something like Pinterest is probably better for that. If you’re selling one-off large-ticket items like furniture, it can be done well–check out Jay Blades’s account for a a good example where he’s built a big following but will also often share new furniture pieces being added to his shop.
i can’t select any more fotos i have a sony phone i whas thinking maybe it would work on it because it those not work on pc but no it just wont work please someone help tips for a sony phone ?
I haven’t used a Sony phone, so I’m not sure specifically about that, but are you using the Instagram app or through a web browser on the phone? The app has the mutli-photo feature, but it’s not available through a mobile web browser.
My select multiple photos feature isn’t working any tips on making it work again ? I’ve used it before and it’s just not there anymore I’ve tried reinstalling turning off device etc nothing has worked
Hi, is there a way to upload such multishots with a PC?
Apps for Windows Phone don’t have such options and adding multiple pics within one post would be perfect to me at the moment.
I’ve worked with Gramblr and Instapic before, especially Gramblr’s great but none offers the newest option.
It’s a very helpful site you have, thanks! :)
I’ve yet to find one that works with that feature. I thought that the user agent spoofing method might work, but it doesn’t on Mac–you can only select one image from the popup browser at a time. Not sure if that’s a limit imposed by Instagram’s mobile site, the browsers, or the operating system, but I haven’t specifically tried it on Windows–it might be worth a try to see if you can select multiple images to upload.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work on Windows either (Chrome, Edge, Explorer – you can’t add any pictures at all, actually). BlueStacks – no multi-photo option.
Well, thank you anyway, I’ve had some fun trying them all out. :D
I guess I’ll just have to wait a long time ;)
Have a lovely day!
It must be a limitation on Instagram’s end for the mobile site, then. No idea whether it’s something they’re likely to add, but thanks for reporting back.