How to see posts someone is tagged in on instagram


Best Ways To Find All Tags And Mentions In 2022

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Have you ever seen tagged photos on Instagram that take you to another Instagram page when you tap on them?

Tagging on Instagram is a useful feature that many people use to connect with other people’s related posts. Instagram tagged photos search can be contentious, and you may have many questions in this regard.

Your Instagram account can be tagged or mentioned by your friends, customers, clients, and your audience as a whole. Additionally, you can use location tags, and doing so will increase your Instagram engagement rate.

This Instagram feature is crucial if you have a lot of interactions. To see all tags and mentions related to your account, you can use both your mobile phone and the web. You can also use third-party apps like AiSchedule to see them.

So, let’s see the answer to your questions including how to search Instagram tagged photos, how to hide tagged photos on Instagram, how to see tagged photos on Instagram and all other related questions about it.

What Are Tagged Photos on Instagram

Tagging is one of the most important features of Instagram. You can tag products on Instagram if you have access to the Instagram Shoppable feature, and add location tags to your posts and stories to make them suitable for your target audience.

How to view tagged photos on Instagram

Tagging your friends and other users on Instagram to show them your relevant content is also common. On Instagram, ‘tagged’ photos are those that have a mark on them that, when you tap it, links you to the user’s profile.

Tagging An Instagram Account vS. Mentioning

Now that you know what tagging means on Instagram, you may ask what is the difference between tagging and mentioning. Generally, mentions and tags have three differences:

  • While tagging is done on the image of your original post and a tag will appear on that image, mentions are made by placing the @ symbol before the name of an Instagram page.
  • On Instagram, tagging can be done on an image, but mentioning can be done in a post’s comment or caption.
  • Users and followers can also mention pages in comments, but only the page owner can tag an image.

So now you know what is tagging and how to see who is tagged in an Instagram post, so let’s dive into how to do an Instagram tagged photos search.

How To Search Instagram Tagged Photos On A Mobile

You can search for tagged photos on Instagram by using the search feature on both the official Instagram app and the website in any desired web browser.

To use Instagram tagged photo search, open the Instagram app on your mobile device and sign in, then follow the guidelines below.

1- Instagram Tagged Photos Search- In-App Solution

You can see your tagged photos or other people’s tagged photos by going through every person’s profile. Instagram tagged photos search can be done in the tag folder of the mobile version of Instagram.

If you want to see pictures that someone else has tagged you or your friends in, go to your profile or your friend’s profile and look in the tag folder.

However, this will only work if the profile owner has not disabled the feature. If you go to a friend’s tag folder, you’ll just see pictures that they have tagged from the private page you have followed or a public page where the images are shown to everyone.

Instagram tagged photos search

As you know, tagging is different from mentioning an account on Instagram. There is a disadvantage to just tagging an account and not mentioning it on Instagram.

While the tag on a post displays all of the accounts that have been tagged, most users would not tap on the content to see who has been tagged and who has been mentioned.

In this situation, it’s also a good idea to mention all of the tagged accounts in the caption so that the average person reading it sees their usernames as well.

2- Use AiSchedul To Track All Your Tagged Photos

Use third-party apps to view all Instagram posts where you or someone else has tagged in. One tool you can use to track all of your Instagram-tagged photos is AiSchedul.

Using AiSchedul, you can see all posts that mention your name in the ‘Listening and Repost’ section of your AiSchedul account. The screenshot below shows the user interface and the section where you can see all tags and mentions.

How to see tagged photos using AiSchedul

AiSchedul is a multi-featured Instagram-based platform and one of the best scheduler tools on the market. It’s also the best app for reposting on Instagram because it has more functionality and options than the competition.

Not only can you repost any content with it, but you can also schedule IG posts and stories, react to comments automatically, and so on. This app allows you to look for Instagram posts using IG hashtags, locations, and other criteria.

Using AiSchedul to track all your tagged photos is useful, especially for Instagram professional accounts of brands and businesses because they can see what their customers have said about them on social media.

In case you have organized an Instagram contest or giveaway, you can check all the User-Generated content (UGC) in one place on the desktop.

The advantage of using AiSchedul over the desktop version of Instagram is that you can repost the contents in which you are tagged from a desktop.

So, your audience can see the posts and realize that you have interactive followers. As a result, they find it easy to trust you and buy from you because they know about your credit on Instagram.

In addition, they get interested in taking part in your Instagram User Generated Content campaigns in the hope of appearing on your feed. Now let’s know how to see tagged photos of others on Instagram on a desktop.

How To View Tagged Photos On Instagram On Computer

On Instagram’s desktop platform, tagged photos/pictures are now available. To see tagged pictures of people and accounts you follow, you no longer need to use the app on your mobile phone.

This is part of Instagram’s latest desktop feature. On the page of the account you’re following, it’ll be below the bio section. ‘Posts’ and ‘tagged’ are located immediately above the photo area.

View Tagged Photos Using Instagram Web Version

You can also access tagged Instagram images and posts on the website by typing ‘tagged’ in the address bar after the Instagram account you’re following (For example https://www.instagram.com/instagram/tagged/).

This is particularly useful when you don’t want to use your phone to see how other users are interacting with the accounts you follow. You can then follow those accounts in return or learn about new ones to visit or try.

Here is the tagged section of @lancomeofficial:

How to view tagged photos on Instagram web version

To view tagged photos on the Instagram web version, enter the account name of the person whose tagged images you want to view. You can enter the search term with or without the hashtag symbol. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, use the Tags tab to narrow down the results without tags.

We should mention that you can view Instagram tagged photos using the official Instagram web version but you cannot repost any of them.

Using AiSchedul, you can repost any posts you are tagged in from your computer.

View And Repost Tagged Photos On Instagram From A PC

As already mentioned, you cannot repost tagged photos from the official web version of Instagram. If you want to repost your UGC or any other content that you are tagged in, you should use Instagram tools.

For reposting multiple photos on Instagram using AiSchedul, follow these steps:

  • Open the AiSchedul website on your browser and sign up for free.
  • After you’ve signed up, go to your Instagram account and start handling it.
  • Pick Add Instagram account from the Dashboard. You can connect up to 80 accounts at once and handle them all at once.
  • Select Manage Account after signing into your Instagram account.
  • Click on Repost and choose where you want to repost it, Feed, or Story.
  • After clicking on Feed, you can choose the way you want to find the content. You can repost by hashtags, usernames, locations, or URLs.

You may want to hide tagged photos from other users’ views after viewing and discovering them, but how should you do so? Continue reading.

How To Hide Tagged Photos On Instagram

There are various ways to hide and unhide tagged photos on Instagram. Simply select the option that works best for you. In this way, you can hide your tagged photos from your profile.

However, keep in mind that this will prevent anyone browsing your profile from seeing your tagged photos, but your tagged photos can be seen by searching them.

To hide the tagged photo from your profile on Instagram, follow the steps below:

  • Go to your profile by pressing the profile picture or username on the home screen of the Instagram app.
  • Look for the picture that has been tagged to see if the photos are still there.
  • On the top right, tap the hamburger button.
  • Go to Settings.
  • Open Privacy.
  • You should see a list of pending tagged photos and their number which you should open.
  • Hide any picture you want by tapping on it.

To unhide Tagged Instagram Photos:

  • On the top right of the selected frame, tap the three-dot icon.
  • Post Options should be available.
  • Select Show on My Profile.

FAQs About Instagram Tagged Photos Search

There may be more questions about how to see tagged photos on Instagram and tagged photos search, here in this section, we will briefly answer some of the most frequently asked questions.

1- How Do You See Someone’s Hidden Tagged Photos On Instagram?

Well, you can’t. It is not possible to see someone’s hidden tagged photos on Instagram. Just as you cannot see the posts of a private account on Instagram, you cannot see the tagged posts of private accounts either.

2- Why Are Tagged Photos Not Showing Up?

On Instagram, you can choose whether to allow posts to appear on your profile manually or automatically. So, if your tagged images aren’t appearing on Instagram, search the feature called ‘Photos of You.’ Set it to ‘Add Automatically’ to get all the tagged images added to your profile automatically.

Bottom Line on Instagram Tagged Photos Search

Now you know how to see someone’s tagged photos on Instagram. Additionally, finding all your tagged photos on Instagram and mentions of your Instagram account is necessary, especially if you have a business on Instagram.

You should know what your audience is saying about you because it plays an important role in your Instagram marketing strategies.

Using AiSchedul, you can find all tags and mentions on your Instagram account in one place, and you can repost them on your feed or story if you want.

Can I Search Instagram For Someone Else's Tagged Photo

I didn’t know that I was going to become so in love with Instagram as much as I am today. I wasn’t a fan before, but I’ve grown to love the platform now. So recently, as I wandered through the platform, going from one post to the other, a question crept into my mind.

I wondered if it was possible to search for another person’s tagged photos on Instagram. To satisfy my curiosity, I made some research to find out the answer to the question troubling my mind.

So can you search Instagram for someone else’s tagged photo? Yes, you can search for tagged photos of your friend or any other person on Instagram. You can do this in two different ways.

One way to search for the tagged photos is by using the Instagram search feature on the official Instagram app or Instagram.com in any desired web browser. Another way is to go through the person’s profile, but this will only work if the feature has not been blocked by the profile owner.

Instagram’s user interface may vary a little when viewing on a laptop compared to a mobile phone, but this is not a cause for alarm as this article will address both situations.

I’ll also talk about why you may be unable to view a person’s tagged photos, no matter which of the aforementioned methods you decide to use.

How To Search For Someone Else’s Tagged Photos On Instagram

Can I search Instagram For Someone Else’s Tagged Photo

As earlier mentioned, you can search for tagged photos of your friend or just a random person on Instagram using two methods. I’ll elaborate on each of them shortly.

Searching through the Instagram Search Feature

To use this method;

  1. Open the Instagram app installed on your mobile device or visit www.instagram.com and sign in.
  2. On the app, locate the Instagram search feature on the “explore” tab. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the bottom menu to access the search feature. A search box with the placeholder “search” appears at the top.

On www.instagram.com, the Instagram search feature is at the top of the home page/home feed. The home feed is the page displayed as soon as you log into your Instagram account.

  1. Enter your search term in the search box. That is, enter the username of the person whose tagged photos you’d like to see. You can type in the search term with the hashtag symbol or not (as in #mybestfriend or mybestfriend). On the app, four tabs will appear when you do this.
    Also, a list of top suggestions will appear from which you can choose your desired result. If you can’t find what you are looking for in the list, you can click on the Tags tab to filter the results that aren’t tags.

On www.instagram.com, the four search result tabs are missing and this could make it harder to filter results. Therefore, it is better to type in your search term with the hashtag symbol (as in #mybestfriend) and choose your desired result from the list of top suggestions that will appear.

  1. Upon tapping a result from the list of suggestions, a grid of photos and videos that have been tagged with that tag will be displayed for you. On the app, a selection of posts with the highest likes and comments (also known as top posts) displays in the default or Top tab. To view the recent photos and videos for that tag, switch to the Recent tab.

On Instagram.com, the top posts are displayed at the top (usually about the first nine photos or videos), and to view the recent posts, all you have to do is scroll past them.

Searching Through The User’s Profile

To use this method;

  1. open the Instagram app installed on your mobile device or visit instagram.com and sign in.
  2. If the person whose tagged photos you’d like to see follows you on Instagram or you follow him or her, tap on the profile button on the explore tab. It’s a small circle icon in the bottom menu with your profile picture in it. This will take you to your profile page Then tap on the followers or following button on your profile page respectively.

Locate the search field at the top of the followers or following list (depends on which one you tapped in the previous step), then enter the username of the person whose tagged photos you’d like to view and tap on the result displayed in the drop-down menu.

  1. If the person is not your follower and neither do you follow him/her, locate the Instagram search feature on the “explore” tab. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the bottom menu to access the search feature. A search box with the placeholder “search” appears at the top.

On www.instagram.com, the Instagram search feature is at the top of the home page/home feed. The home feed is the page displayed as soon as you log into your Instagram account.

Enter the username of the person whose tagged photos you’d like to view and tap on the result displayed in the drop-down menu.

  1. The profile of the user will then be displayed for you. Tap on the tagged photo icon (an icon with the outline of a man in a square box) directly above the user’s third photo. This will display all the posts in which they have been tagged.

It is important to note that this method may not be effective if the user has used the “hide from profile” option to hide his or her tagged photos from the profile.

Why Can’t I See Someone’s Tagged Photos Even When I Search For It?

You may be unable to view a person’s tagged photos no matter how much you try or what method you employ. This can happen due to any of the following reasons:

  • He or she has a private account: this means that the user has locked down his or her profile by setting his or her account to “private”. By doing so, no one can see his photos or videos unless he approves them. This is usually done by people who love their privacy and like to keep other people out of their business.
  • He or she has untagged himself/herself from the photos: Instagram has made it possible to remove oneself from a post in which one was tagged. This can be done by simply clicking the three dots at the bottom right corner of the photo then clicking the “photo options” button. Afterward, one will click the “more options” button and lastly the “remove me from photo” option.
  • You have been blocked from viewing his/her posts: the person whose tagged photos you want to see may have blocked you for one reason or the other. This will prevent you from viewing his or her tagged photos, especially through his profile. Unfortunately, Instagram does not notify users when they have been blocked by another user. You only realize this when you visit their profile and there are no posts there for you to view.

How To Hide Your Own Tagged Photos On Instagram

If for any reason you will like to prevent other people from viewing your tagged photos on Instagram, I’m happy to tell you that you have several ways to do that. You only need to decide which of the options I’ll be listing is best for you. Here goes👇

  1. Hide your tagged photos from your profile: this will prevent anybody looking through your profile from viewing your tagged photos. To do this, you should
  • Tap the photo you intend to hide.
  • Tap your username.
  • Tap “Hide from My Profile” if you’re using an iPhone or tap next to “Hide my Profile” if you’re using an android.
  • To hide multiple photos or videos
  • Tap the icon or tap your profile picture in the bottom menu of the explore tab.
  • Tap the Icon in the top right corner of your profile page then tap “Settings” at the bottom.
  • Tap privacy and then tags.
  • Tap Manually Approve Tags then tap Edit next to Tagged Posts.
  • Select the photos you intend to hide from your profile and tap Hide.
  • Tap Hide From Profile.

Note that hiding tagged photos from your profile does not remove you from the posts. This means that an Instagram user will be unable to view your tagged photos from your profile but can view them using the search method stated above.

  1. Remove yourself from tagged photos: when you remove yourself from tagged posts, you’re completely dissociating yourself from the photo. This means that no matter the method used, no Instagram user will see that you were initially tagged in the photo. To remove yourself from any photo in which you were tagged;
  • Tap the photo from which you’d like to remove yourself.
  • Tap your username
  • Tap Remove Me From Post
  • Tap Remove2. Block a specific user: if you’d like to hide your tagged photos from a specific follower or group of followers and not everybody, then this option is for you. All you have to do is block the user or users. To do this
  • Go to your profile page and tap Followers.
  • Enter the username in the search field and search.
  • Tap the three dots (horizontal on iOS and vertical on android) next to their name.
  • Tap Remove.
  • Repeat the above steps for each person you’d like to block.

Related Question

How Do I Follow a Tag on Instagram

We all have interests and things we care about on Instagram, but sometimes it might be hard to keep abreast of all that’s happening on there. This is where following a tag comes in. When you follow a tag, it helps you keep up and stay connected with things that you care about. To follow any hashtag on Instagram:

  • Tap any hashtag you want to follow (for example #writing)
  • Tap Follow. Once this is done, you’ll see the photos and videos of the tag displayed in your feed.

You can always unfollow the tag whenever you feel like it. To unfollow a tag on Instagram:

  • Tap the tag you’d like to unfollow.
  • Tap Following.
  • Tap Unfollow to confirm.

How To Send Photos Privately To Friends On Instagram

Sometimes, you may not want to post your photos for all to see. You may want to share some photos with specific friends only. The good news is that this is now possible with Instagram Direct. To use this Instagram private messaging feature, you should

  • Open your Instagram app.
  • Locate an icon in the top right corner that looks like a box, or some sort of filing cabinet drawer. Tap on it. This directs you to a new screen.
  • This new screen is titled Direct. To open a new direct message, tap on the plus sign in the top right corner of the screen.
  • Three options will appear at the bottom when you tap the plus sign. The top one Send Photo or Video lets you send photos and videos to a contact, the middle one Send Message lets you send messages with basic text, and the last one Cancel is for canceling. Tap on the Send Photo or Video option.
  • Tap the photo that you want to send to your friend and then tap Next in the top right corner of the screen. You can use filters and effects to make the photo better or decide not to use any filter. Once you’re okay with the photo look, tap Next again.
  • After that, you should decide who you’d like to send the photo to. Tap the text box with the word to on the left and type in the person’s username. There is also a list of contacts under the heading People to choose from. Once you’ve decided on the receiver, tap Send at the bottom of the screen.

The user will be notified of the message as soon as it is sent. You can send as many messages as you want in the privacy of direct messaging.

 

Tags: how to get the best tags on instagram, how to search Instagram For Someone Else's Tagged Photo, why yo need to tag someone on instagram

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Search Instagram like a pro

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Screenshot of Instagram.

Editor's note: This OSINTCurio.us Technisette project post is based on a presentation on Instagram search from the 2019 Netherlands Conference on Open Source Data Search.

Before we start

While you don't need to have an Instagram account to search for data, it can come in handy to track certain hashtags and profiles.

You can create an account through the mobile app or website. To register an Instagram profile, use your email or Facebook account.

For most of what I'm going to show you, you don't need to login. If you need to log in to the page, click the small blue “Log In” button ( log in ) in the upper left corner of the screen.

Search string

Enter any Instagram profile at random to find the search bar at the top. You do not need to be logged in to do this.

For example, Instagram.com/search gives you a personal profile, but you'll see the search bar appear at the top of the screen.

Search for people

Searching for people on Instagram may not be as effective as it seems at first glance. For example, if I search for "Mark Zuckerberg", I will get a random profile first and only then the real profile of Mark Zuckerberg.

Google or any other search engine, in this case, may be more effective. Use, for example, advanced Google search (Google Dorks):

site: Instagram.com “mark zuckerberg” .

Left: Instagram search results. Right: Google results.

There are quite a few tools that provide the ability to search for content on Instagram.

Picdeer.com simplifies the user search process because hashtags and users are not mixed up in the search results as they are in a regular Instagram search. Here you will see a list of hashtags on the left and a list of users on the right.

Similar resources also include sites pictame.com and sometag.com.

Search results on Picdeer.com.

If you are looking for a specific type of user, such as people belonging to a particular group or religion, you might be interested in what people write in their biographies.

Searchmy.bio is a search engine that will only search in the bio section of user profiles.

You can sort the results according to different criteria: “most followers” ​​( by the number of subscribers ) or “most relevant” ( the most relevant ) or add hashtags to the search query.

Screenshot of Searchmy.bio.

When you find the profile you are interested in, you will find several useful extensions, starting with Helpertools for Instagram for Google Chrome.

In the example below, I used Mark Zuckerberg's profile, @zuck.

Helpertools for Instagram is partially free. I haven't used the paid version yet, but the free version has a couple of really cool features. In particular, you can compare two profiles with each other. These profiles must be opened in order for Helpertools to demonstrate its magical power. Depending on the number of followers/followers, this may take some time as Helpertools pauses in order to prevent Instagram from detecting the tool's suspicious activity.

But my favorite feature is the “Business account” section.

In Mark's case, it is marked as “false”, which means that Mark does not have a business account. Having a “business account” ( business account ) is not exactly the same as having a “verified” ( verified ) account. You can switch from a regular to a business profile by yourself by changing the settings, and Instagram does not check any information.

Results from Helpertools for Instagram.

Mark's account is not a business account. So let's find another example that is one.

For example, an account for a cheese shop in the Netherlands. Take a look at the profile: there is no contact information here.

Let's look in Helpertools to see if this page is a business account...

Yes, this is a business account!

We can even see what category they have chosen for their profile. But wait, this is just the beginning!

To get more information, you will now need to create a profile or log into your profile on a mobile phone (or a good emulator) connected to the internet.

Now open the mobile application and log into your account. (I used the android app). When you go to the profile of a cheese shop, you will see several buttons under the inscription bio. One of them is “Contact” ( contact ). If you click on “Contact”, a pop-up window will appear and give you all the contact information associated with this profile (which is entered by the account owner). Thus, we see an email address that was not visible before!

There is another button here: “Call” ( call ) and it will give you a phone number!

So we got an email address and a phone number.

Remember: if we were to explore the profile through the website, we would not see this information!

1. Log in through the mobile app. 2. Find the desired profile and check the “Contact” tab ( contact ). 3. Press “Call” ( to call ) to see the phone number or “Email” to see the email address.

Statflux.com will help you analyze your profile. In addition to information from the profile itself, it will also provide additional statistics, for example, the average number of likes and comments.

It will also give you the posts with the most likes and the most comments.

When you're looking at a profile with a lot of posts and don't know which one might be of interest to you, statflux.com can help you figure it out.

Examples from @zuck on Statflux.com.

Enlarge your profile photo and download images from your account

In Instagram, the profile picture is cropped (taken in a circle). But sometimes you want to see the whole photo, because that way you get a little more information about what's going on in the background, or, for example, see who else is in this image.

There is a way to get this from source, but the DownAlbum extension also allows you to do this.

DownAlbum can help you increase your profile picture not only on Instagram, but also on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Ask.fm and Weibo.

Once the extension is installed, a “Download photo” button will appear right below the profile picture ( download photo ). Click on the link and a new page will open with an enlarged profile photo that you can use to explore further.

Example from DownAlbum.

DownAlbum also gives you the opportunity to download photos to your computer - just right-click on the enlarged image and save the photo.

Another possibility is the website instasave.io. Enter the username of the profile you are interested in and click the “download” button ( download ) under each photo to save it.

Both of these functions will help you download images to your computer one by one.

But what if you need to download all the photos in your profile? To do this, there is an extension for Google Chrome called Downloader for Instagram + Direct Message , which can help you download many photos.

When this extension is installed, you will see a button in the top right corner.

Select the rightmost button to download the entire profile. Make sure you have downloaded the entire page to download all materials. As you can see in this example, Zuckerberg has 141 posts, but this tool shows that there are only 24. If you scroll down the page, you can download more photos.

And one more thing: don't forget about the “Tagged” section ( search by tags ) on Instagram! To do this, you need to log in, but sometimes this gives you the opportunity to explore many other images on the topic. The “Tagged” section under the bio, next to the “Posts” section ( publications ).

Shown on the right: Downloader for Instagram + Direct Message.

Instagram Stories

Instagram “Stories” ( and Stories ) are short videos or photos that users can edit by adding stickers, text, color, and GIFs. (If you want to learn more about the stories, check out this article from Buffer Editor Ash Reid.)

Usually stories are displayed for 24 hours, but you can "highlight" them so that people can see them longer. Such highlighted stories (“highlight”) can be categorized.

You can tell if a profile has stories by looking at the profile picture. If there is a colored circle around it, then there are stories in the profile.

If you want to see these stories, you will need to login.

Left: @zuck's profile has no stories. Right: @bbc profile has stories.

Sometimes a profile has these highlighted stories that are categorized. You will see these stories right below the bio.

Click on a category to view stories.

Under bio you will find highlighted stories categorized.

Search for stories

Stories can only be searched if they are tagged with a location (geotag) or a hashtag.

You can search for stories in the web version; if you search for a hashtag or geotag at the top, you will see a round photo in a colored circle. Click on a photo to find stories that match that specific tag or location.

Instagram search results.

You can make it easier to find stories by using the Downloader for Instagram extension in Google Chrome.

When set, a small icon with Instagram colors can be seen at the top right.

Click on the logo to open a new page where you will see a menu as shown in the screenshot; now you will be able to watch your friends' stories, their online broadcasts, location, as well as the search function.

I searched for the hashtag #Amsterdam and chose one of the options: with a small flag at the end.

Search results from Downloader for Instagram.

If you click on search results, no stories are displayed. Click on the icon with a black eye, then they will immediately appear. With the arrows (left and right button), you can switch between them.

The user who uploaded the stories is shown on the left (shown in blue in the screenshot).

And also very useful: Downloader for Instagram gives you the option to download one or more stories related to the same hashtag (the feature is circled in red at the top left).

Download stories using the buttons in the top right corner.

Keyword search

If you're not looking for hashtags, but just words used in posts, Instagram is probably not the best tool, as you can see in the screenshot example below on the left.

For this, it is better to use Google search or any other search engine.

For Google, use the search operator Inurl:instagram.com/p/ “keyword” , where the word “keyword” (keyword ) is replaced by the word or phrase you want to find. For example, I took “dinner time” ( dinner time ).

Left: Keyword search on Instagram. Right: Keyword search on Google.

Now you can see that one of the results contains the words “dinner time”, while the phrase “dinner time” ( dinner time ) is not used as a hashtag here. Therefore, if you were to enter these keywords in the Instagram search bar, you would not find this post.

Google search result.

Search hashtags

In the search results, check more than just the first few photos. These will be "Top" ( most popular ) photos, but they won't always give you what you're looking for. Be sure to scroll down and check out “Most Recent” ( newest ).

To search by hashtags, remember to use a symbol (eg #osint).

And one more thing: there are many websites that will help you search for hashtags on Instagram. For example, pictame.com and hashatit.com.

Instagram hashtag search. Scroll down to “Most recent” ( newest ).

Hashtag tracking

When you find a hashtag and want to follow it, make sure you are logged in and click on “Follow” ( follow ) to see new posts that are associated with that particular hashtag.

How to follow a hashtag on Instagram.

Download posts with selected hashtags

Downloading posts with the hashtags you need is very easy if you use the Google Chrome extension Downloader for Instagram .

Open the page to the extent you need to download and use the extension to download the posts associated with the hashtag.

Download posts with specific hashtags using “Downloader for Instagram”

Search by location

You can search by location using the search bar at the top of the website. You will be able to identify the location by the icon in the form of an inverted drop.

Select a location to see what stories and posts have been published from that location. Moreover, in order to choose a geolocation, you yourself do not have to be physically located in this place.

Please note that the user can specify any location, and this does not mean at all that he really was there. So a photo of me standing in front of the Grand Central Station in Amsterdam could be geolocated as Times Square in New York simply because I told Instagram that the photo was taken there. If you want to include your real location in your photo, you must give Instagram permission to use your location data.

Search results by location on Instagram.

Are you not sure if Instagram has the place you are looking for? Or do you not know the correct spelling of a geographical name? Check out Instagram.com/explore/locations. Below is a list of countries. Select the country and city you are interested in.

Filter your results by country and city to see what places are available in a particular city.

Search for previously published posts by location

An Open Data Research (OSINT) enthusiast shared this video with me on how to find Instagram posts by location within a given time period. I have to admit that this is quite difficult, but although the video was made back in 2017, this method continues to work in 2019! Watch the video here and the script in Python here .

This video explains how to calculate the date you are interested in. Once you have a date, you can search for the location you need.

Look at the URL; at the end you add: ?max_id= followed by the number you calculate.

For example: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/3001373/times-square-new-york-city/?max_id=1817012758118400

Scroll down to the “Most recent” section ( newest ) - it now shows older posts.

The photo on the left is dated August 27, 2011, but it appears as the first result in the “Most recent” section ( newest ).

That's it!

These were some basic Instagram search methods.

Of course, there are a million other ways, methods, websites, extensions and scripts that you can use to make your Instagram search easier. If your favorite method is not listed in this article, please leave your comments below or email our editor at [email protected]! This way we can all learn from each other.

Are you ready to learn more?! Open Part 2 (Part 2) on how to search on Instagram!


This article originally appeared on OSINTCurio.us and is reprinted here with their permission.

The OSINTCurio.us project is an open source intelligence news source that offers blogs, how-to videos, webcasts and videos, and a podcast every 2 weeks. This project is led by a community of OSINT experts, some of whom are known only by their nicknames (like @Technisette) and others by their real names, including journalists such as BBC and Bellingcat investigative Benjamin Strick.

A bug in Instagram allows viewing private posts and stories

Private photos and videos, as well as stories added to Instagram, were not as private as the developers intended - Buzzfeed discovered an easy way to not only view private posts, but also share them with everyone who wants to. At the same time, Facebook does not consider such a bug a problem and, apparently, they are not going to fix it.

"No different from a screenshot"

Photos, videos, and Instagram Stories posted privately can be easily viewed and even shared with friends, reports BuzzFeed . At the same time, such an operation does not require hacker skills - just basic knowledge of HTML code is enough.

The page code opens in the browser, the user views it and finds the URL associated with a particular picture or video. Then the resulting link can be sent to other people who can view its content without subscribing to a closed account and even without authorization on Instagram.

As follows from the BuzzFeed experiment, the resulting JPEG and MP4 files can not only be shared with third parties, but also downloaded to your device.

This bypass works even if it's a private story, the content of which should be deleted automatically after 24 hours.

At the same time, Facebook claims that this is, in the language of programmers, "a feature, not a bug. " According to the administration of the service that owns Instagram, receiving a link in this way is no different from taking a screenshot of a private picture, which can then be sent to friends as a picture.

“The steps described here are the same as taking a screenshot of a friend's photo on Facebook and Instagram and sharing it with other people. It prevents people from accessing another person's private account," Facebook said in a statement.

However, even without experience in the field of social networks, it is not difficult to see that there is still a difference between the ability to take a screenshot and the ability to share a link with a private photo.

Also, as BuzzFeed points out, Instagram carefully tracks users who view your content within the app, but it certainly doesn't see those who follow your account through URLs that can be easily found in the code. In other words, if someone decides to share a link to your private content, you won't know about it - just like you won't know the name of the person who posted the link, or how many people viewed it.

Among other things, the presence of a link, unlike a screenshot, confirms the authenticity of a photo or video, since the URL cannot be faked. Also, even remote content is available via the link, which is basically impossible to take a screenshot of.

Previously, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to "fix" his social network by focusing on platform privacy.

“We are responsible for your data, and if we cannot protect it, then we are not worthy of serving you,” Zuckerberg told users in 2018.

Given this promise, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, there are many questions about management's refusal to act on private links.

Fakes all around

At the end of August, a fake spread on Instagram, which was picked up by foreign stars, thereby launching a wave of misinformation. At the same time, the platform could not cope in time and limit its distribution.

Julia Roberts, Usher, Taraji Henson, Dave Bautista, Julianne Moore, Rob Lowe, Josh Brolin, Adriana Lima, and even U.


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