You don’t need to install a third-party app to upload Instagram photos from your laptop or desktop computer 💻 You can simply trick Instagram into thinking that your browser is a phone. Here’s how.

NOTE: if you’re having issues with selecting photos, read on for more info about that.

Chrome

1. Sign into Instagram in your Chrome browser
2. Open Chrome developer tools (cmd + option + I on Mac)
3. Click the three dots in the right corner
4. Choose More tools => Network conditions
5. Choose a mobile User Agent (like Android)
6. Voilà! You should now see a mobile-looking interface
7. Click the Instagram plus (+) button to add a photo
8. Select a photo and upload

Safari

1. Sign into Instagram in your Safari browser
2. Add Safari developer tools to your navigation bar
3. Click Develop => User Agent
4. Choose a mobile user agent (like iPhone)
5. Voilà! You should now see a mobile-looking interface
6. Click the Instagram plus (+) button to add a photo
7. Select a photo and upload

Issues

If the photos are greyed out when you try to select them, it might be because:

1. The photo is too big. Try limiting it to something around 250kB.
2. The photo has an invalid format. Try for example JPG/JPEG.

Hope this helped out! Happy instagramming 👋