How to use instagram effects on iphone and android
Daniel Hoffman
Published Mar 29, 2026
Sending messages made fun!
You can now reply to specific messages on Instagram, just like in WhatsApp and Telegram.
- Add special effects in Instagram DMs
- Now you can also save messages for quick replies
- These features and more in the latest version of Instagram
Did you know you can now use cool new special effects for your Instagram DMs? With a recent software update, Facebook has merged Messenger with Instagram DMs, and since then the latter has received some cool new features such as the ability to set up a custom chat colour, vanish mode, custom emoji reactions etc. In this article, we’ll be telling you about one of these new features that came with the merger.
Instagram DM: Add special effects to messages
You can now add special effects in Instagram DMs, whenever you reply to someone or you send someone a new message. Follow these steps.
- First up, make sure that you have got the latest version of Instagram installed on your phone.
- Open any chat on Instagram and type a message.
- Tap the magnifier on the left, next to the text entry field.
- You’ll now see four new effects to choose from.
- Tap and choose the one you like and that’s it.
- Doing this will send a message along with the special effect.
Apart from this, you can also save messages to use as quick replies. To do that, follow these steps.
- To save a sent message, long-press on it and tap Save.
- You’ll be asked to assign a shortcut, enter it and hit Save.
- To save a received message, long-press on it > tap More > tap Save. Assign a shortcut command to it, and that’s all.
- Now whenever you want to send a quick reply, simply use the shortcut instead of typing the complete phrase.
This is how you can make the most out of Instagram DM’s by adding cool special effects and saving quick replies.
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For more tutorials, visit our How to section.
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Instagram has many features which users can use to play around with their clicked image to show more creative stuff to the world. A few months back the Instagram had introduced the Focus feature that gives a sufficient amount of Blur to your selfie pictures in order to give a touch of DLSR photography. However, this feature can only be used in the live camera. Means images those clicked using the Instagram app in a live mode but what about the other pictures? It is not possible everytime to click images within the Instagram app, so there is a solution called Tilt-Shift which is enough sufficient to blur out the part of the picture on Instagram. Hence, let’s see how to blur the background or create a bokeh effect in pictures on Instagram for both Android and iPhone.
The glance of the steps you need to follow:
- Go to Instagram.
- Tap on the plus sign (+) to create a new post.
- Select the Picture you want to upload on the Instagram.
- At the beside the Filter option, you will see EDIT, tap on that.
- Scroll the option towards the right side and you will see TILT SHIFT, tap on that.
- Two blureffects: Liner and Radical blur option will be there.
- Select one according to your image or scene requirement.
- Once the blur effect applied successfully.
- Tap on Done and share the Image on Instagram.
Comprehension of the above steps with screenshots:
Step 1: Open the Instagram app on your Android or iPhone smartphone from the menu. In case you are new to Instagram then you have to create an account and log in with the same credentials to work with it.
Step 2: Once you there, tap on the plus (+) sign given in the square box to at the bottom of the center to create a post for Instagram.
Step 3: Select the image you want to post on Instagram and tap on the NEXT button.
Step 4: Tap on the Edit button to perform some editing on the picture.
Step 5: Scroll the options to the left side and tap the Tilt-Shift option of the Instagram.
Step 6: Under the Tilt-Shift editing tool you will find two types of options one is Radical and the other one is Linear.
Radial: This option will allow you to blur out the parts of the image but in a circular pattern, means the center part of the circle will remain clean while the rest of will burred out from the photograph. To use this tool, just use the two fingers in or out to adjust the area of the picture to blur. For reference, how to do it, see the below screenshot.
Linear: It is the second blur effect option in Tilt shift of the Instagram which allows a user to implement the blur effect on the images but in a linear contour. Just like the Radical blur we mentioned above, here you also have to use your finger in the same way you used to zoom in or out some photographs. Select the amount of area you want to cast under the blurry effect.
Once the effect added just Tap on the DONE option and post the picture on Instagram.
In this way, you can add some amount of blurriness in any picture you about to post on Instagram on the fly.
Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app from Facebook comes with an auto-refresh feature which means that posts on your feed will refresh automatically and take you to the newer posts that come on Instagram. This feature can be annoying at times as it never lets you go down to your feed and you may never be able to see some posts. This feature takes you to the top so you have to scroll all the way down to where you were before. We are telling a trick to stop Instagram from auto-refreshing on Android as well as on iOS.
Stop Instagram From Auto refreshing
The simple trick to turn off this feature is not anywhere inside the Instagram app, but you can do this by your phone’s settings on both Android and iPhone by restricting the background data usage. Here’s how.
On Android
To disable this feature for Instagram on Android, you need to turn off its background data usage from your phone’s settings. Follow these steps:
- Go to Settings and select Network & Internet.
- Tap on the Mobile network and select App data usage.
- Here look for Instagram, tap on it disable the toggle for Background data.
This way the app won’t use mobile data in the background and will not refresh automatically. This will also save your mobile data.
On iOS
In order to disable this feature for Instagram on iPhone, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app from your Home screen and tap on General.
- Here, look for Background App Refresh.
- Now, toggle the switch next to the Instagram app for which you want to disable it. The toggle will be grayed out when it is disabled.
That’s it! The disabled background app refresh feature for Instagram on your iPhone now won’t refresh it automatically. If you want to turn it on again, simply go back & switch it on.
This way you can stop Instagram from auto-refreshing on Android as well as on iOS. For more Instagram tips and tricks, stay tuned!
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In Instagram’s early days, users had just a handful of photo filters to choose from, but those days are long gone. Now you can find countless ways to enhance your photos and Instagram story.
Instagram’s filters help you build a personal brand, create a cohesive profile look, and save you both time and money. Using existing filters is as easy as selecting from your preloaded camera options, but finding new ones and saving them to your camera isn’t much harder.
All you need to do is launch the Effect Gallery and choose from among the available categories or find them using the search feature.
Here’s how to search for filters for your Instagram story.
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How to search for filters on Instagram
1. Swipe to the left on your Instagram newsfeed to open your camera, or tap the plus sign by the “Your Story” icon on your newsfeed if it’s your first post of the day.
2. Swipe to the left on the camera screen’s circular menu bar until you land on the “Browse Effects” option, represented by a magnifying glass.
3. Tap it to open the Effect Gallery.
4. Choose from popular filters on the homepage, or scroll through and select categories at the top. Additionally, you can tap the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner to search.
How to save and download an Instagram filter to your camera
1. While in the Effect Gallery, tap on a filter you’d like to try and wait for the preview page to open.
2. Find and tap the download icon located at the bottom right of the screen to save it to your camera.
3. The arrow will change to a checkmark when the Instagram story filter has saved.
4. Tap the “X” in the top right of the filter preview screen or swipe down to return to the Effect Gallery.
- While testing a filter you can also tap the name of the filter on the bottom of the screen to bring up an option to “Save Effect,” which you can tap to save the effect to your camera.
5. Select the back arrow on Android phones or press the “X” on iPhones in the upper left corner of Instagram’s Effect Gallery.
6. You can now find your newly saved Instagram story filter in the menu.
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After 18 months as an iPhone exclusive, photo-sharing app Instagram arrived for Android Tuesday. Instagram allows you to take photos, apply a variety of filters, and easily share your work to many different places, including Instagram’s own home-built social network.
I’m a frequent—okay, obsessive—user of Instagram on my iPhone, so I was curious to see how the Android version measured up.
I downloaded the Instagram for Android app from Google Play onto the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) and the Samsung Galaxy Blaze 4G (running Android 2.3 Gingerbread) and gave it a spin on both phones.
First things first: This app took up nearly 17MB of space on my Galaxy Nexus, so if your phone is running short of storage space, be aware. Also, before you get too excited, check to see what version of Android you’re running. If it’s below 2.2, you won’t be able to use Instagram–and you should probably check to see if there’s an update available for your phone!
Once I logged into the Instagram account I use on my iPhone, I felt right at home using Instagram for Android. The same feed I see on my iPhone was right there on my Galaxy Nexus, complete with all my friends’ most recent photos featuring Instagram’s well-known image filters.
Fragmentation Bites
The process of capturing, editing, and sharing a photo in Instagram for Android isn’t always what it’s like on the iPhone. On the Galaxy Nexus, things were pretty similar, though: Clicking the Camera/Share button in the center of the Android app’s toolbar brought me directly to a picture-taking screen. Just as on my iPhone, I had the option to either view the existing gallery of photos on my phone (represented on Android by a box with a mountain in it, rather than the interlocking squares on the iOS app). I also had the option to switch to the front-facing camera, turn the flash on or off, or cancel out of camera mode entirely.
Camera app in iOS lets you preview filters. Camera app in Android does not let you preview filters. But the camera mode experience on the Galaxy Blaze 4G didn’t match up to what I experienced on the Galaxy Nexus. Yes, this is Android fragmentation at its finest! On the Galaxy Blaze 4G, when I tried to take a photo, a dialog box asked me to pick a source: Camera or Photo Gallery. When I picked Camera, I was switched to the Galaxy Blaze’s native photo app. That familiar Instagram camera interface I’ve come to know and love was gone.
You can tweak these settings to force the app to take pictures itself by going to the app’s settings on the homescreen. This only seems to work on certain phones, however. On the LG Marquee, the app crashed when I tried to open the Instagram camera. Instead, I had to take my photo in the native camera app and crop it, and only then was I switched back to the Instagram user interface.
Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter much where you shoot your Instagram photos on Android right now. That’s because, unfortunately, Instagram app for Android is missing a feature recently added to the iOS app: The ability to view a live preview of a filter before you shoot. You can still add one after you shoot, but I’ve gotten used to being able to mess around with filters before I take my shot.
Also missing from the Android app is the Tilt Shift/Blur feature, which lets you selectively blur out certain areas of your photos. This function is really cool, as you can fake a shallow depth of field in your photos or blur out the background of your photo to focus on a single object.
Familiar Effects
The filters in the Android and iOS apps are essentially the same.
After you take your photo, the options are pretty much what iOS users have come to expect: Instagram gives you access to a series of image filters that let you stylize your photo. You can add or remove a frame that’s added to your image by some of the filters, and you can rotate or brighten your image. The filters are almost identical to the iOS version, though I noticed one funny difference: There’s an X-pro II filter on the iPhone and an X-Pro filter on Android. The Android filter looked a little darker.
Once you’ve applied an effect, you can share your photo from your Android phone to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Foursquare. You can share to all these networks on the iOS version, but additionally to Flickr, Posterous, or via e-mail. And given that this is Android, I would have also loved to see some Google+ integration here.
Viewing the feed containing your friends’ photos is basically the same on both platforms. You have the option to Like a photo, comment on it, share it, or delete it. When you click Share on the Android app, you have the option to share it via Bluetooth, Gmail, Message, and—hey, look at that, now you can share it to Google+.
The Instagram feed on Android is almost identical to iOS.
It is worth mentioning that quite a few photography apps are available for Android that offer more filters and better effects than Instagram, including Camera360 and MagicHour. Instagram also isn’t the first photo-sharing site for Android. The Lightbox photo community has been around for a few years and was specifically designed for the Android platform by a former Google employee. And I like its interface for Android better than Instagram, though the user community is a lot smaller.
Even so, it is exciting to see a longstanding iOS-only app finally make its way to Android. Instagram on Android is faithful to the original iOS version, but the company really needs to work on improving the consistency across various Android phones. It’s no good to have an app behave differently on different phones with the same operating system. but, then, that may say more about Android than about Instagram.
Fragmentation aside, I hope that Instagram will bring the Tilt Shift/Blur and live filter preview features to Android in a later update. Both features are a joy to use on iOS, and Android users deserve to have them, too.
- You can use Instagram Reels to make 15-second videos with visual and sound effects, similar to TikTok.
- To make an Instagram Reel, tap the camera icon and then choose “Reel” at the bottom of the camera page.
- You can also convert existing video into a Reel by swiping up to see your phone’s camera roll.
Recently, Instagram unveiled Instagram Reels, a new short-form video format that’s clearly inspired by TikTok. You can record, edit, and publish video clips between 3 and 15 seconds in length to your Instagram feed.
Making your own Reels is pretty straightforward; the hardest part is likely finding where Instagram has placed the feature. Here’s how to make your own Instagram Reels.
How to record a new Instagram Reel
3. At the bottom of the screen, tap “Reels,” to the right of “Live” and “Story.” If you don’t see the “Reels” option, update your app to the latest version in the app store.
5. Record your clip. There are three ways to record:
- Tap and hold the “Record” button. When you release the button, recording stops.
- Tap the “Record” button. If you tap and release the button quickly, it’ll continue to record – tap again to stop recording.
- Tap the Timer button on the left side of the screen and choose how long to record, then tap “Set Timer.” When you tap the “Record” button, you’ll see a countdown and then the app will record for the time you specified.
8. On the “Share” page, enter a caption and then tap “Share” to post it.
How to make an Instagram Reel from video you’ve already recorded
You don’t need to create a new, original video every time to publish a Reel. If you already have video on your phone, you can easily convert it to a Reel and publish it.
1. Start the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android device.
2. Tap the camera icon at the top left of the screen.
3. At the bottom of the screen, tap “Reels.”
4. Swipe up to see your camera roll. Be careful not to swipe up from the very bottom of the screen on an iPhone or you’ll close Instagram.
6. Using the control at the bottom of the screen, choose the part of the video you want to use and then tap the check mark.
8. Use the right arrow to preview and then publish the video as a Reel to your Instagram feed.
The photo-sharing app offers numerous effects for its users globally. Here’s how you can download, save and use filters on your Instagram.
- Cyrus John
- @Cyro_JCyrus John –>
- Published: December 30, 2020 10:46 AM IST
Instagram is one of the world’s most popular photo-sharing platforms with over a billion users on its platform. The popularity of the app has reached beyond the realms of the smartphone as it is also available on the desktop. Also Read – Top 5 free Android apps on Google Play store this week
The fact that the photo-sharing app offers such a seamless user experience with multiple filters, effects and other features makes more people join the platform and share their daily stories through the visual medium. Also Read – Twitter shuts down Fleets, its Instagram Stories clone
Speaking of stories, Instagram Stories is the most commonly used feature on the app where users post their daily activities via pictures or small videos which disappear in 24 hours. The way to make these stories more engaging and fun is by using various filters and effects which you might have also come across various profiles. But how do you download those filters and how do you get that unique effect that one of your friends used in their story. Let’s take a look. Also Read – Instagram’s new feature aims to keep you safe from hacking, 2FA via WhatsApp underway
How to search and download filters
You first need to open the camera on Instagram by swiping left and going to the newsfeed section.
You then need to tap on the ‘Your Story’ icon if it’s the first story you are posting.
You can also post a fresh story by tapping in the ‘+’ sign on the top-left corner of the app and selecting ‘Story’ from the carousel below.
Then, you need to swipe left from near the shutter button to go to the ‘Browse Effects’ option.
Tap on that and then you’ll be able to browse through multiple effects which you can save to your account. You get to choose from a range of filters which you can see in the form of tabs on the top of the screen.
If you wish to search for a specific filter you can do so by typing its name in the search bar on the top.
To save a filter, tap on the effect and then tap on the download option at the bottom-right corner of the app.
The filter will be saved to your Camera section. You also have the option to try the filter before downloading it. If you want to use the effect you’ll find it in your Camera section.
How to download and save filters on your Camera
If you come across a filter that someone on your follower list is using, you can also download the same filter/effect.
To download that filter, tap the name of the effect that is displayed on the top-left corner.
You will then get an option to save the effect on your camera at the bottom. Tap on ‘Save effect’ and it will be saved on your camera.
To use the filter, you need to go to your Instagram camera and scroll through the effects on the bottom by swiping left or right. That effect will be saved in that carousel.
Best 4 Apps to Make Beautiful Cinemagraphs on Android and iOS
It’s very easy to become obsessed with cinemagraphs. They disrupt what we know about traditional photography, and encourage both creators and viewers to think a little more deeply about the story at hand. Because of the booming trend in quick, digestible, micro-video content, cinemagraphs are often compared to things like GIFs, Boomerangs, and even Apple Live Photos. What separates them from these other formats is that only one part of the composition involves a perfectly looped element of motion, which draws and holds attention much more effectively, while the rest of it is still.
They are popping up all over social media, websites, digital advertising campaigns, television, and beyond, so naturally, more people want to learn how to make them. There is cinemagraph software available for desktops, but if you’re a mobile creator, then you’re also in luck.
We know there is a great tool for creating cinemagraphs on an iPhone. We also listen to what our community says about some of the Android tools that are out there, so we decided to put together a list of some of the apps that can introduce you to the world of creating cinemagraphs.
Create Moving Images with these 4 Cinemagraph Tools for Android and iOS
1. Cinemagraph Pro for iOS
Flixel Cinemagraph Pro is an app that you can use on any iOS device; it’s also a cinemagraph software available for macOS devices. It simplifies how to create and edit cinemagraphs on your iPhone and iPad. All you need to do is either import or shoot in-app, for up to 10 seconds, then edit using a live masking feature. Paint to unveil the motion beneath the still photo, loop, and crop. You can then export it as an MP4 video file using any of the optimized social presets to Facebook, Instagram, and more. You can upload it to your Flixel gallery, which makes it easy to use your cinemagraph on blogs and websites. Cinemagraph Pro is not available for Android devices. You can download the iOS app and try it for free, with the option to upgrade to a subscription plan.
2. Zoetropic
Zoetropic is one of the most popular Android apps to create a moving photo, but the results aren’t truly a cinemagraph. You select areas of a still image and blend it to create motion-like effects. It’s challenging to make these motion-like effects look realistic, but some might like practicing the art of cinemagraphs with still images before they move into making a cinemagraph based in video. There are free and Pro versions of Zoetropic available for download.
3. Fotodanz
We’ve heard cinemagraphs described as “moving pictures”, “living photos”, and even GIFs – but never a dancing photo. fotodanz is a tool that keeps cinemagraph creation simple. You can record your video in-app up to 3-5 seconds. A photo is taken at the same time so that you have both the video and photo parts ready to use. You’re limited to just a few seconds of video in Fotodanz, but it might be a way to learn the basic steps needed to create cinemagraphs. There are free and paid versions of Fotodanz available for download.
4. Lumyer
Lumyer allows you to add animated effects over still images and videos. It’s a quick, fun way to create a cinemagraph-like effect on content shot on your mobile Android device. You might compare it to what many users are doing with the GIF function on Instagram Stories; they add little animated effects to their selfies, portraits, and other shots. The effects in the Lumyer app are higher in quality compared to what you’ll find on Instagram, but still are notably different than real video motion. Lumyer exports are GIF and MP4 files. The app is free to download and has in-app purchases available.
3 Important FAQs Worth Reading Before You Create Cinemagraphs
Cinemagraph by koi_chiro shot in Tokyo, Japan
If an app has stabilization, do I still need a tripod to make a cinemagraph?
While some of the mentioned apps have stabilization tools that will work for a casual creator, a tripod is always recommended for best results. This allows you to shoot completely still video footage, so that when you edit, you can seamlessly blend the photo and video elements together to create a true cinemagraph. Without a tripod, you will see a break in the cinemagraph, which is less mesmerizing, and more chaotic. Check out this video to learn how to make a cinemagraph with a tripod compared to a handheld device.
What cinemagraph file format is better for social media?
Every social media platform supports video. You can easily share cinemagraphs as a video (MP4 file) on Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and even LinkedIn. All of these platforms allow video to auto-play, and most allow them to auto-loop. They can loop seamlessly and live beautifully on social media as high definition video, which is also smaller in size. When shared as GIF files, they are larger in size, and lower in quality, which makes the user experience poor.
Which Android app is the best for creating cinemagraphs?
We can’t pick one particular Android tool for cinemagraphs. It really depends on what you want to create them for. If you have never created any video before, then maybe you want to start with the apps that make cinemagraphs from still images. While these photo animations aren’t true living photos, they may give you an idea of what can make one effective. If you’re ready to jump into video, try Fotodanz or MotionGraph. The quality isn’t the best, especially when your outputs are exported as GIFs, but you’ll start learning the basic steps to creating a cinemagraph with an Android device.
If you have an iPhone or an Android Smartphone, there are quite a few music apps that are fun to use. One of the newer apps is called Musical.ly. This social app lets you record and edit your own music and lip-syncing videos and share them with others, as well as displaying the most popular musical.ly videos and those of your friends. OneHowTo can tell you all about what musical.ly is, the different features and how you can use them.
- How To Use The Musical.ly App
- Creating a video with Musical.ly
- Recording a Video and Adding Video Effects with Musical.ly
- Challenges and Contests on Musical.ly
- Saving Videos you Make with Musical.ly
How To Use The Musical.ly App
First, once you have downloaded the app – which is free – you will need to register and set up your Musical.ly profile. Once you have created your profile you will be taken to the home screen, which will appear like the image below.
This is the default starting page, where you can discover new musical.ly videos in a variety of ways and navigate around the app. At the top, you can see three options: follow, which shows you videos from friends and other people you follow; featured, which shows you the most popular and trending videos, and my city, which shows you videos from other users located nearby. You can follow a user at any time by clicking on their name and accessing their profile.
Along the bottom of the screen there are further options to explore the different features of musical.ly. On the left is the home screen, explained above. The other options are search, create a video, notifications and a link to your profile. In the next section we are going to explain how to create a video with musical.ly.
Creating a video with Musical.ly
So now you are familiar with the home-screen and you have watched a few videos from other users, you probably want to know how to make your own video with Musical.ly. Well, there a couple of different ways you can make your video which are quite simple.
You can pick music, which gives you the option to select the track first, so that it plays while you record the video. If you choose this option you will be prompted with a menu where you can find the song you want.
Alternatively you can shoot first (and ask questions later?) As the name suggests, this option allows you to make a video first and then select the track to sync with afterwards. Lastly, you can import existing videos from your device and sync them up the track of your choice.
