Originally, the social network Instagram was developed for sharing photos. However, soon a feature appeared that allows regular and business profiles to share short videos with their followers. If you still don’t know how to add a video to Instagram, check out our article where we explain how to upload a short film to your feed via smartphone or PC, how to maintain quality, and which additional apps can help in the publishing process. It will be interesting!
Nuances of uploading videos to Instagram: requirements for parameters
Before posting a video clip to your Instagram blog, let’s consider the system requirements for a video post. Namely:
- 60 seconds – maximum duration of a video for the feed; 15 seconds – for the story mode.
- Acceptable video file formats for the Insta app – MP4 and MOV.
- The “picture” format is a standard square.
- The uploaded video size should be up to 128 megabytes.
There are a couple of secrets on how to bypass the above restrictions for uploading “short films”:
- You can increase the video duration by publishing it on IGTV (up to 60 minutes) or through special editors.
- It is quite possible to upload widescreen “movies” by clicking on the “four checkmarks” icon during material processing.
- The size can also be exceeded through third-party utilities.
Useful to know. Instagram allows users to send videos to the feed with sound.
How to add a video to Instagram: step-by-step guide
Now let’s move on to the main point – how to post a video on a social network. There are two different ways to do it:
- via mobile phone;
- on a personal computer.
They are significantly different, so we will focus on each one separately.
On the phone
To begin with, let’s figure out how to publish a video on Instagram from your phone. The step-by-step instructions are as follows:
- Take your smartphone and unlock the screen.
- Launch the official Instagram app.
- Type in your login (username/mobile number/email) and password in the window that appears.
- Tap on the “plus” sign in the bottom menu.
- Select the desired clip from your gallery and attach it to your post.
- Remove the frames by clicking on the “four checkmarks” icon in the lower left corner.
- Edit the material: apply a filter, shorten the duration of the “short film,” and choose a cover from your favorite frames.
- Add a caption, hashtags, and links.
- Tag the location and people if necessary.
Done, now all that’s left is to upload the video to your feed using the “Share” button.
Useful to know. This instruction is suitable for smartphones based on the Android and iOS operating systems.
On the computer
Posting a video on a computer will be a bit more complicated than on a phone. This is because the “plus” button is simply absent in the desktop version of Instagram. Therefore, you will need to additionally install the BlueStacks 4 Android game emulator. This emulator allows you to create a virtual OS and download programs from the Google Play Store.
So, to upload a video to the feed, you will need:
- Open a browser and go to the BlueStacks.com website.
- Download the installation file and install it on your PC.
- Launch the emulator and tap on the “Google Play” icon.
- Log in to your Google account (Gmail).
- Click on the search bar and enter the query “Instagram”.
- Download the appropriate utility and log in to your Instagram account.
- Click on the “plus” icon and insert the appropriate media file into the editing window.
- Adjust the length, choose a cover, and apply color filters.
- Share the video to the feed using the “Share” button.
Interesting. You can view the web analytics of the clip after it is added by clicking on the post with the “movie” and scrolling down the page.
How to upload a video to Instagram and maintain quality
To upload a video to Instagram without losing quality, you need to follow some rules:
- Download the latest version of the social network app. In older versions, the system often deteriorated the published materials.
- Adjust the video to Instagram’s technical requirements. Otherwise, it will be cropped or overly compressed.
- Check the internet connection. Try to improve it as much as possible.
If you follow these simple rules, it is quite possible to post a “movie” in good quality.
Apps for adding videos to Instagram
There are other ways to post a clip on social media – through online services and through third-party utilities. Namely:
- using the Publbox planner;
- through Instmsk;
- in the Grambl program.
For convenience, let’s figure out how to add videos to each of them.
Publbox:
- Go to the Publbox.com website.
- Click on the red “Try 14 days for free” button.
- Register or log in through Facebook or Twitter.
- Choose your country and accept the terms of service.
- Tap the top button in the left vertical menu and select “Add project”.
- Name the project and connect your Instasety account.
- Click on the plus sign in the left menu.
- Click on the camera icon and the “Desktop” button.
- Select the appropriate file.
- Upload the post.
Useful to know. The downside of Publbox is that after the two-week trial period, you will have to purchase a tariff for posting.
Instmsk:
- Go to the Instmsk page.
- Log in with Facebook, gmail, Yandex mail, VKontakte, or Odnoklassniki.
- Click on “Add account”.
- Authorize on your Instasety account.
- Click on “Upload video”.
- Select a file from your device’s library.
- Edit it.
- Set a time for delayed posting, if necessary.
- Share the post.
Grambl:
- Download and install Grambl on your computer.
- Enter your login and password for your Insta profile. Confirm login.
- Drag the video file from your desktop to the Grambl window.
- Edit it: crop, apply filters or stickers.
- Click the “Send” button to post the clip.
Interesting. The Grambl program is entirely in English.
Posting a video on Instagram is not difficult when you know all the nuances that may arise during publication. So read the text and take note of the useful tips above.