The growth of Instagram has been phenomenal, especially among young users who are tired of seeing a crowded Facebook. The streamlined service allows you to easily post images and videos, with an intuitive interface. It’s great for those who just want to share their personal content with friends. Equally important is the benefit it can generate for brand promotion. This dual use means that some people will often want to maintain a personal account for their personal life while promoting a brand for public use. If you have a lot of issues or want to split a brand into different hubs, you might need more than one or more Instagram accounts. Thanks to a software update, it has become easier to change username, but how many Instagram accounts can you have? Tech Tip tells you and explains what you need to do to manage them correctly on Android and iOS.
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Why would you want more than one Instagram account?
The ability to manage multiple accounts on Instagram can be beneficial for both personal and business users. Reasons for having more than one Instagram account can include:
- To distinguish different locations of your brand : If you have multiple branches of your business, you can distinguish them by creating different Instagram accounts for each of them. If your business operates in multiple countries, you can create a different account for different locations. Your content can be location specific, so you don’t want to promote something to your customers in one area that won’t benefit those in another. You can see that this wastes time and alienates these customers.
- To differentiate your brand in hubs : All of your content is unlikely to appeal to all of your customers. If you are a media company, your sports publications may not be as interesting to those who are more interested in other aspects of the culture. By creating groups that are relevant to users, it allows them to see only the content that interests them and that will improve your growth.
- Divide friendship groups : We all have different interactions with different types of friends and families. For example, you can have different Instagram accounts, one for your relatives, another for your friends, another for your football club members and an additional one for your colleagues. You may not want to mix them up in one Instagram account, as some content may be inappropriate depending on the group.
- To separate professional and private life : the creation of two different accounts for personal and professional use is not only possible, but recommended. You don’t want to bore your customers with your privacy, nor do you want to share something that might be inappropriate as a publishing business.
- You market for your business : Although you can use an emulator, Instagram requires you to use its service from your mobile device. If you are marketing for your business (i.e., it’s not actually your brand), you will find it easier to use your own phone. Therefore, adding your business account will allow you to easily switch between them. Just make sure you remember which is which.
How to create multiple Instagram accounts
In order to create multiple Instagram accounts , you need to create a new account so that it can be automatically logged into your main account. Before that, however, you need to make sure that you have the latest version of the Instagram app or at least 7.15 or later. This was released in 2016, so if you’ve updated since then you’ll be fine.
Instagram allows you to have up to five accounts connected to your application. The presumption is that you wouldn’t use more than 5 accounts if you did something you shouldn’t. However, this is not always the case, as there are many marketers who may work for different brands to promote them. You will also need 5 different emails or use Facebook or a phone number to create these different accounts.
It is also important to note that you cannot add new accounts using the desktop version of your browser. You can’t even switch between them because you’ll have to log out and then log back in. Some third-party apps let you do this, but there are often more issues than they are worth.
Once you have the correct version installed, to set up a second account on Instagram:
- Launch the Instagram app and go to your profile page.
- At the top right, you’ll see a gear icon. Clicking on this icon will open Instagram settings.
- At the bottom you will see an option ” Add an account “. If you have an existing account, you can type the username and sign in or choose to sign in with your password. Otherwise, you can go to the bottom of the screen and click on ” Register To create a new account.
- You will see options to register using your Facebook account, phone number, or email address. However, if you’ve already dedicated your Facebook account to your main Instagram account, you’ll have no choice but to sign up with an email address or phone number.
- If you signed up for Facebook, all you need to do is log into your Facebook account. However, if you sign up with your phone number or email address, be sure to provide a unique one for that account.
- If you used an e-mail address, you must log into this account, open the e-mail and click on “Confirm e-mail address”. If you used your phone number, you will receive a verification number which you must enter to register.
- Once you have verified your account or phone number, click ‘Next’.
- You will be directed to your profile page where you can enter your name, profile picture, and desired password.
- Click on Next ‘.
- Enter a username that will become your Instagram ID. It looks like @username and you can change it later at any time.
- A username must be unique. If it’s available to be picked up you’ll see a green check mark next to it and if it’s not unique you’ll see a red “X”. If your desired username is not available, Instagram will suggest a few names for you to choose from. You can choose any of these usernames or make other changes, such as adding numbers.
- Press ‘Next’.
- It will ask you if you want to connect with Facebook. If one of your Instagram accounts is already logged in to Facebook or if you don’t want your new account to log in to Facebook, you can press ‘Skip’.
- Once you’ve done that, Instagram will automatically start searching for your contacts and seeing how many of them are on Instagram. You also have the option of “skipping” this step, as it may take a few minutes.
- Then you will be taken to the “Discover People” page. Follow the people you want.
- Tap “Done”.
- Then you will be taken to the home page of your new account and they will be automatically connected to each other.
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How to add a new account on Instagram
If you already have configured a account you want to add, you can do it easily. This allows you to switch between them without logging out and manage them at the same time. To add your new account on Instagram, follow these steps:
- Launch the Instagram app and go to your profile page.
- You will see a settings icon in the upper right corner. Tap this icon.
- At the bottom you will see an option “Add an account”. Tap on it.
- Enter the username and password for your new Instagram account, then tap ‘Login’. If you’ve connected your new account to Facebook, sign in using it.
- Now your two Instagram accounts are connected and you can manage them both through your app.
- You can create more accounts and add to your Instagram app byfollowing the same steps.
How to switch between multiple Instagram accounts
Now that you have all your profiles on the app, you might want to know how switch from an account to the other? Follow these instructions:
- When you launch the app, your username will be displayed at the top of your profile page.
- Click on the username at the top.
- A drop-down menu will appear with the names of all of your Instagram accounts.
- Select the username of the account you want to open.
- You will be directed to the page of profile of the account you selected. These steps allow you to open your Instagram account without logging out of the first one.
How to delete an account from your Instagram app
There are many reasons why you might want stop using an account . It could be due to a business shutdown, a job, a rebranding, or even username fatigue. You might just want to remove it from the app because you don’t want to use it on your device, but you can still use it on others. Whatever your reason, here’s how you can delete an Instagram account from your app:
- Launch the app.
- Go to your profile page.
- Open the account you want to delete.
- Select the Settings icon in the upper right corner.
- Scroll down the menu and log out.
- From now on, you will not be able to access this account without providing your username and password.
