7 Apps to Up Your Insta-Game
Do you have a love-hate relationship with Instagram? Because I feel you. I'm going to share with you the 7 apps I use that could improve your insta-game. While we work hard at our Insta-Game, we must remember that at the end of the day, it’s just a tool and we must never get caught up in the numbers game.
1. Snapseed
Snapseed is arguably the photo editing app that I use the most often for editing all my Instagram photos. It is FREE and it has a range of functions that allows me to make some minor tweaks to the colours and temperature of the photo. My favourite function is the White Balance feature and the Curves feature. It has this very nifty Selective feature that lets me select darker spots of the photo to brighten.
2. Lightroom
Lightroom is another photo editing app that I like using for throwing on a quick filter on photos. Lightroom for mobile is FREE, which is absolutely my favourite word haha, and if you’re a subscriber on Creative Market, they send out freebies which sometimes include Lightroom filters. I download a bunch of these filters and when I just want to make a quick edit, these filters come in handy.
3. VSCO
VSCO is a photo editing app that is both FREE and super easy to use. If you don’t feel like doing much editing, throwing on a filter on VSCO is easier than frying an egg. Just upload your photo and pick a filter, voila. I used VSCO a lot before I discovered Snapseed. Nowadays I prefer having more control over the edits but this is definitely one of the best editing apps I have used.
4. InShot
I use InShot to edit videos for reels. It is also FREE! I do that because I find the video editing interface more intuitive and easier to use than the Instagram Reels interface which is a little clunky. After that I save the file with no music so I have a base video file that I can keep reusing. This way I can repurpose the same video file later on for both Instagram and Pinterest and add music individually on the two different platforms, so that there is no copyright infringement for music use on different platforms, and I do not get penalized for having a different platform’s watermark on my video.
5. Bubblehouse
We all know static images don’t do very well on Instagram now so this is a little trick I like to use to switch things up a little. In the FREE Bubblehouse app, you can create a little slider video of some Before/After images. You basically drop in two images and a little slider appears where you can drag it left and right to reveal the before/after process. Simply screen record you dragging the slider left and right, and voila, you have a sweet little video for your socials.
6. Canva
Canva is an AMAZING graphic design tool. They have both the app and the desktop version for ease of use. You can get by with the free version, there are plenty of templates and elements for you to play around with. I use Canva all the time to make visuals for my blog, for Pinterest and for Insta stories. It is an absolute breeze to use, and you can upload your own images, your brand logo and even keep a log of your brand colours to make your job easier.
7. Later
Later is a social media planning tool that I use to schedule and plan out my Instagram content. I like to batch work because it helps keep me focused, so I tend to write a whole month’s worth of content in a day or two. It lets you preview your feed so you can drag things around to rearrange them. You can also save all the hashtags that you commonly use in groups so you can easily re-use them! They also have a desktop website so if you prefer typing on your computer than your phone, it is really convenient. I use the FREE version, which is good enough for me at the moment. It doesn’t support carousel posts nor reels scheduling but it is sufficient for me to plan enough content for the month, and if the mood strikes I always have space in the calendar to upload a reel or two in between.
There you go! 7 apps to up your insta-game and make your feed look amazingggggg. Please feel free to share with me if you have any other awesome apps that you use!
