Instagram Testing Support for Browser-Based Posting

For as long as it's been around, Instagram has been a smartphone-oriented social network that doesn't extend to tablet devices and even lacks many basic features in its web browser incarnation, including the ability to post. However, that could be set to change, if a recently unearthed internal feature test ever goes public.

Instagram Feature 1
Developer and leaker Alessandro Paluzzi has discovered Instagram code that strongly suggests the Facebook-owned platform is already working on the ability to upload photos and videos from a desktop web browser.

Based on images Paluzzi shared on Twitter, browser-based Instagram users could soon be offered the ability to natively drag and drop photos and videos from their computer for upload, as well as crop the content, apply filters, and compose accompanying text for publishing to the social network.


It's still not clear when the features will go live, and there's no mention of Stories creation being supported within a browser. And given Instagram's long-established focus on smartphone-originating content, the company could well decide to abandon the web feature test altogether.

Meanwhile, there's still no word on an official Instagram app that's built specifically for iPad, so if these web-based features do make it out of testing, they could offer an alternative workflow for tablet users.

Top Rated Comments

breather Avatar
27 months ago
Just make the App iPad compatible….
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JippaLippa Avatar
27 months ago
I'd strongly prefer this as I'd like to be able to open Instagram on the desktop only when I need to post an image (artworks in my case) instead of having a data-hoarding app leaking all sorts of telemetry from my phone
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Konigi Avatar
27 months ago
About time! I hate it when apps that are available on the desktop don't provide the same experience, for no good reason. It's not even possible to share posts as Stories...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wanted797 Avatar
27 months ago
In other news

"Apple testing Website Tracking Transparency features."
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Northgrove Avatar
27 months ago
It's a little interesting because Instagram has earlier intentionally avoided this feature to ensure people see more ad-hoc mobile photos there. But this obviously hasn't worked out with photographers and even influencers there using smartphones only as a temporary storage between professional gear and an upload to Instagram, so I suppose this might be late reaction to that.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
i.am.lost Avatar
27 months ago

Well now FB has the Creator Studio which lets you set posts to publish later as well as to a FB business page, so it really wouldn't be hard to just let you post live from it.
It already does. Instagram Creator Studio has been around for 2 years now as a browser-based solution.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)