In the same league as Tik Tok, Instagram has become the most popular social media platform for teens and young adults today. As audiovisual takes precedence over text, it has managed to hook millions of people around the world. However, it continues to gain ground among an older audience, and here, a key variable comes into play: the Instagram version for desktop leaves a lot to be desired.
Although Facebook – the owner of Instagram – continues to add new features, it still can’t hold a candle to the smartphone version. So today, we’ve brought you a few Chrome extensions to improve your Instagram experience on your PC.
First of all, make sure you have updated Chrome. You can download it below for free.
Real-time notifications
We’re going to start our article with a basic feature: real-time notifications from your account. If Instagram had a drawback, it would have to be the notification system. It doesn’t matter if it’s on Android, iPhone, iPad, PC, etc. In all cases, the service doesn’t work as well as other social media platforms.
On desktop, we can at least add a “patch” through a Google Chrome extension called WebClient for Instagram. This tool simply notifies us about comments, likes, new followers, and more from our profile. Just enable the extension on your Chrome browser and make sure you’re logged into your Instagram account (this applies to all the extensions going forward). You’ll start to receive real-time notifications about everything as it happens. How cool is that?
Download photos and videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYYjp83aUH8&feature=emb_title
As you may have already noticed, Instagram won’t let you download images or videos from its platform. On your phone, you have no choice but to use a mobile app or your operating system’s tools, while on desktop, you can’t do the classic “Save image as.”
To make it happen, you need the Downloader for Instagram extension. As the name suggests, this tool lets you download any photo or video from the famous social media platform. You can save something with just a few clicks of your mouse.
Likewise, this extension lets you read and reply to direct messages from the Instagram website, something that wasn’t possible until recently (however, since the latest update a few weeks ago, you can check messages without a problem).
WhatsGreen Multi Messenger
This extension is for not only Instagram but all the social media platforms and messaging services you use on a daily basis. WhatsGreen Multi Messenger is a tool that lets you check all your linked apps with a few clicks of your mouse.
For example, imagine if you use WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, Instagram, Skype, etc., every day. Well, with this extension you can keep all the icons for these apps organized in the same folder. It’s like having a smartphone display right on your Google Chrome browser.
GrowBot Automator
The next extension isn’t our favorite if you want a clean, healthy Instagram account, but it could be convenient for a business account: GrowBot Automator.
This automated tool follows other accounts to flesh out your Following and Followers lists. You can program the “bot” to follow accounts with a minimum and maximum number of followers, with a minimum and maximum ratio of followers to following, with a minimum number of posts on their profiles, that are verified or unverified, that are private and much more. There are so many options that it could be overwhelming when you install it, but the idea is to automatically gain followers.
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Read MoreImproved Layout for Instagram
This extension is one of the most popular in Google’s online store for a reason: it enhances all of Instagram’s features to the point where the mobile version will seem too limited to you.
Improved Layout for Instagram is based on the following premise: “The default Instagram.com layout is not optimized for desktop.” That’s how blunt the developers are, and what they do is implement several functions: for example, you can view several posts simultaneously, since they appear in a horizontal format as opposed to vertical; controls are added to videos, such as fast-forward, rewind, pause, etc. (something the mobile version lacks and we miss), and there is full-screen mode and much more. You should definitely try it because the difference is amazing.
Night Mode
This extension is easy and straightforward: Night Mode for Instagram. As you may well know, this dark tone has become a favorite among users, and practically all the applications, programs, etc., on the market are including this feature.
Instagram Night Mode dims the entire page. And we mean that quite literally, as everything is displayed in this dark tone. Backgrounds, posts, stories… If anything ever appeared as white in the original version, it will be reversed with this extension. It’s an easy way to rest your eyes so the brightness doesn’t fry your pupils.
App for Instagram
Last but not least, we have an extension called App for Instagram. Its purpose is clear: to let you use Instagram on a PC just like you do on your phone. It’s that simple.
The developer of this extension, one of the most popular in the Chrome Web Store, wants to ensure the same experience on both systems: you can view (and respond to) Instagram stories just like you would do on a smartphone, display “Likes” the same way, at the bottom of the page instead of the top (as usual on the PC version), have an identical layout, etc.
In short, it aims to eliminate any visible differences between the mobile and desktop versions, so it’s the same app for everyone.
And those are the best Google Chrome extensions to make the most of Instagram. They’ll let you download photos and videos and even use the PC version just like the mobile one. Which one is your favorite?
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