Instagram has added all sorts of compatibility in recent years, from short video formats to Stories, to the new Instagram TV (IGTV) option for watching your favorite creators.
This makes Instagram not just a destination for checking out photos, but videos and all sorts of content as well. In some ways, it almost seems like Facebook and Instagram are making it even harder to get away from the site, and if you’re headed offline, there’s a good chance you’ll want to take a few of the videos with you.
Fortunately, the process itself is quite simple, Surprisingly so in fact.
The introduction of 15 second video clips was a poke at Vine and has gone down very well indeed. Even more so since the demise of Vine was announced. A quick scan of Instagram at any time of day will see hundreds, if not thousands of videos from everywhere in the world covering everything from professional EPs to slightly less savory subjects. There really is something for everyone on here. Once you get past the corporate advertising and the pointless self-promotion there is a lot of creativity going on. Ripe ground indeed for some interesting video.
There are four main ways to download Instagram videos. You can use an app or your browser and a couple of downloader websites. You can also download manually if you prefer or use IFTTT to automate it. Let’s take a look at each.
Downloading Instagram videos is not supported by Instagram themselves. They would obviously prefer you to spend as much time as possible on the social network. As long as you do not share the content you download and do not violate any copyright, you’re probably okay downloading them.
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Download Instagram videos using an app
The InstaSave Android app is a useful app that allows you to download any Instagram video. All you need to do is install it, open it and paste the video URL into the app where it says ‘paste your link here’. Click Save Video and the app will do its work. The app also allows you to download any hashtags or text that comes with it.
Other apps that do similar things include InstaTV for iOS. It works in much the same way and offers the same fast, simple downloading of media from the social network.
Download Instagram Videos On Your Mac or PC Browser
There are a few websites that allow fast downloading of Instagram videos through your browser. One is W3Toys and another is SaveDeo. I prefer W3Toys but it can be busy and get slow at peak times which is why I use a backup website. Fair warning if you choose SaveDeo though as it has a tendency to list the most popular video downloads and many of them are definitely not safe for work or for younger eyes!
To make this work, capture the URL of the video you want to download. Navigate to the W3Toys website and paste the URL into the box. Hit Go and the site will download the video onto your device to get started.
Another decent downloader site is Instadown. It works like the other two. Add the URL into the box and hit Instadown. Alternatively, hit Get BB Link and the site will generate a permalink to the video that removed the ads if there are any. Each is very useful in its own right.
Download Instagram videos manually
Instagram has no specific tool to download videos as they want you to stay on the site as much as possible. Yet with a simple tweak you can change all that. Just don’t tell them we told you!
If you don’t trust apps or downloader websites, just try this. Open the video on Instagram using a browser. Right click anywhere on the page and select View page source or words to that effect. Press Ctrl + F on a Windows computer to perform a search and type ‘mp4’. The result should point you to a URL. Copy that URL into a new browser tab and it will play the video. Press Ctrl + S to save it to your computer.
While the manual way takes a few seconds longer, it doesn’t rely on anything, or anyone else. If you prefer to keep apps to a minimum or don’t trust those downloader websites, this is the way to download Instagram videos. It will work time after time and won’t get too busy like the downloader sites.
Use IFTTT to download Instagram videos
My final way to download Instagram videos is also the coolest. It uses an IFTTT recipe to automatically download any video you like onto your cloud storage. This is great if you’re on a mission to collect video series or just want to save vide for later use. You will need an IFTTT account, a Dropbox account and (obviously) an Instagram account for this to work. Log into IFTTT and use this recipe or make your own. To make a recipe, you need to activate the Instagram channel and your Dropbox channel, then use the recipe.
Select Intagram as the trigger and select an option. Select ‘New video by specific user’, ‘Videos by anyone tagged’ or ‘You like a video’. Select the last option, ‘You like a video’. Then, click the ‘that’ link to set up the destination. Select ‘Upload File from URL’ as the action, select your Dropbox account as the destination and create recipe. Then just turn it on. Now, any time you like a video on Instagram, IFTTT will automatically download it to Dropbox for you to access at any time. How cool is that?
Each of these methods is a viable way to download videos from Instagram. While I certainly have my favorite in IFTTT, if you don’t use the IFTTT site or don’t regularly download videos, it may not be worth your while. In that case, the manual method or websites I listed above might be more to your tastes. Remember though, those videos highlighted on SaveDeo will usually contain NFSW content. You have been warned!
