Tag on Instagram

This article teaches you how to use Instagram’s many tagging features to make your feed more social. You can identify people in your photos with username (@) tags, or use hashtags (keywords that begin with a #) to make your posts easily discoverable by others.

Steps

Tagging Someone in a New Photo

  1. Open Instagram. It’s the app on your home screen or apps list with a multicolored camera icon.
    • This type of tagging is different than a hashtag, as it simply identifies another Instagram user in a post.
  2. Tap + to add a new photo. It’s at the bottom center area of screen.
  3. Select a photo to upload. Or, if you prefer, tap Photo to snap a new picture with Instagram’s built-in camera.
    • It’s not possible to tag someone in a video post.[1]
  4. Select filters or effects. You can skip this step if you don’t want to adjust your photo.
  5. Tap Next. It’s at the top right corner of the screen.
  6. Tap Tag People.
  7. Tap someone in the photo. The tag will appear over the part of the photo you tap.[2]
  8. Type the person’s name or username. When Instagram recognizes the person you’re tagging, their name will appear in the search results.
  9. Select the person you want to tag. Their name will appear over the area you tapped. You can drag it to another part of the photo if desired.
    • If you want to tag more people in the photo, just tap them and search for their name as you did with the first.
  10. Tap Done. It’s at the top right corner of the screen.
  11. Enter a caption. You can skip this step if you don’t want to include any text with your photo.
  12. Tap Share. It’s at the top right corner of the screen. Your tagged photo will now appear in your followers’ feed.
    • The person/people you tag will receive a notification that they’ve been tagged in your photo.

Tagging Someone in an Existing Photo

  1. Open Instagram. It’s the app on your home screen or apps list with a multicolored camera icon.
    • This type of tagging is different than a hashtag, as it simply identifies another Instagram user in a post.
  2. Go to your Profile. It’s the icon at the bottom right corner of Instagram that looks like a person’s head.
  3. Select the photo you want to tag.
  4. Tap ⁝ (Android) or ⋯ (iPhone). It’s above the top right corner of the photo.[2]
  5. Tap Edit.
  6. Tap Tag People. It’s near the bottom of the photo.
  7. Tap someone in the photo. The tag will appear over the part of the photo you tap.
  8. Type the person’s name or username. When Instagram recognizes the person you’re tagging, their name will appear in the search results.
  9. Select the person you want to tag. Their name will appear over the area you tapped. You can drag it to another part of the photo if desired.
    • If you want to tag more people in the photo, tap the photo, then search for their name as you did with the first.
  10. Tap Done. It’s at the top right corner of the screen.
  11. Tap Done. This second “Done” will save your changes. The photo is now tagged.
    • The person/people you tag will receive a notification that they’ve been tagged in your photo.

Tagging Someone in the Comments

  1. Go to a post you want a friend to see. A quick way to bring a friend’s attention to an interesting post is to tag (also called “mention”) their username in the comments. This sends a notification to your friend so they can see the post.[3]
    • Username tags begin with an “@” symbol and follow the format “@username.”
    • Your friend will not see your tag if the post is private (unless they follow that account).
  2. Tap the Comments icon. It’s the chat bubble beneath the photo or video you want to share.
  3. Tap the space bar on your keyboard. Instagram once let users type “@yourfriendsname” into the comments to tag folks, but now this just sends a direct message. You’ll need to start the comment with something other than the “@username” tag, such as a space or another word.
  4. Type @yourfriendsname. If you don’t know their exact username, just start typing it until you see it in the search results. You can tap it once it appears to add it automatically.
  5. Tap Send. The icon looks like a paper airplane and is at the bottom right corner of the screen. This will post your comment, and your tagged friend will be notified that they’ve been tagged.

Adding Hashtags

  1. Learn what a hashtag does. A hashtag is a keyword with “#” at the beginning (e.g. #puppy) that links photos or videos that share common subjects. Adding hashtags to the captions of your photos and videos will make them easily discoverable by people Search Instagram
    • For example, if you type #puppy in the caption of a photo, someone searching Instagram for "puppy" will find it, along with other pictures that use the same hashtag.
    • Username tags (e.g. “@username”) identify a person or company that appears in the photo. They are different from hashtags.
  2. Open Instagram. It’s the app on your home screen or apps list with a multicolored camera icon.
  3. Edit the caption of your photo. You can add hashtags to any of your new or existing Instagram posts by typing them into the caption field. Here’s how to get there:
    • If you’ve already posted the photo or video: Go to post and tap the ⋯ (iPhone) or ⁝ (Android) at its top right corner, then select Edit.
    • When posting a new photo or video: Tap + at the bottom center area of screen, then select a photo or video to upload. Add effects, if desired, then tap Next at the top right corner of the screen.
  4. Type hashtags into the caption field. Simply type the hash symbol (#) before any keyword relevant to your photo. Your hashtags can appear as a list beneath your photo, or you can blend them in to sentences. Here are some ideas for incorporating hashtags into your caption:[4]
    • Subject of the photo: You could caption a picture of your kitten lying in the garden with “#Drake the #kitten sunbathing in the #garden."
    • Location: Some of the most popular Instagram searches involve specific places. Try something, e.g. “#mybed,” “Pic of my #holidays in #Phuket #Thailand #Asia” or “Nothing beats my favorite latte from #Stumptown #PDX"
    • Photo techniques: Hashtags for apps, filters, or styles used to create the photo, e.g. #iPhone7, #hipstamatic, #blackandwhite, #nofilter, will appeal to photographers.
    • Events: If you and your friends want to share photos from the same event, create a hashtag to use on all of your photos. For example, if everyone going to a party tags their photos with #sarah30thbirthday, it will be easy to find the images.
    • Identity: Make yourself easy to find by people with whom you share common traits, e.g. #redheads, #latinas, #lgbt, #borninthe80s, #teambeyonce.
    • Find out what’s trending: Do an online search for “most popular Instagram hashtags” or try a site like http://www.tagblender.com to view popular hashtags.
  5. Tap Share. If you’re editing an existing post, just tap the check mark at the top right corner of the screen. Your photo or video is now searchable by hashtag.
    • Tap the hashtag under your photo to see all other content posted with that hashtag.
    • If your Instagram profile is private, your hashtagged photos will only be visible to people who follow you.

Searching by Hashtag

  1. Open Instagram. It’s the app on your home screen or apps list with a multicolored camera icon.
  2. Tap the Search icon. It’s the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.
    • You can also tap the hashtag in the caption of any photo to see all photos with that hashtag.
  3. Tap the Search box. It’s at the top of the screen.
  4. Tap Tags. It’s beneath the Search box.
  5. Start typing a hashtag or keyword. As you type, Instagram will return hashtags that match your search.
    • For example, if you type the word “kitten,” you’ll see results for #kitten, #kittensofinstagram, #kitteh, #kittenoftheday, etc.
    • Each result shows how many photos use that hashtag (e.g. seeing “229,200” beneath #kittensofinstagram means there are 229,200 photos with that hashtag).
  6. Tap a hashtag to view its photos.

Tips

  • Over-tagging your photos makes your comments too long and boring and users won't bother reading them. Try to limit your tagging to 2-3 tags per photo.
  • Hashtags can contain letters, numbers, and dashes. They cannot contain spaces or special symbols.[5]
  • Hashtags (#) and at signs (@) are not the same thing. # Hashtags are for keywords. @ signs are for communicating. For example, if you type @cat instead of #cat it would signify that you want write to a user called “cat” and not just mention the word cat. Be careful!

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. Jump up ↑ https://help.instagram.com/375691319209377
  2. ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 https://help.instagram.com/174635396025538
  3. Jump up ↑ http://digiday.com/media/instagrams-update-messaging-tool-means-end-mentioning-friends/
  4. Jump up ↑ https://help.instagram.com/351460621611097
  5. Jump up ↑ http://www.hashtags.org/how-to/marketing-how-to/how-to-use-hashtags-on-instagram/
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