You Can Finally Schedule Posts on Instagram Now (Kinda)

Instagram has announced that you can now schedule posts on the social network, provided you are signed up as a business account and using an approved third-party scheduling service. This new automation will streamline the Instagram workflow for those who are using the image-sharing app.

Scheduling will work through third-party apps that make use of the new Instagram Graph API. There’s still no way to schedule posts directly on Instagram, through — you will, for now at least, need to make use of a third-party social media management service – and they are, more often than not, paid services.

Instagram suggests using a Hootsuite account to make this happen, although it will also be possible to do via other third-party partners as they get onboard with the new API.

“The scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers,” said Ryan Holmes, CEO, Hootsuite. “Hootsuite is excited to partner with Instagram to make this happen.”

The ability to schedule posts will no doubt lure more Instagram profiles that are being used for business purposes, but which are still listed as regular personal accounts, to convert to the official business side to the network. However, with Facebook’s recent announcements that personal content will be prioritized over commercial content, it is likely that in the future these business accounts will see decreased reach.

Scheduling support for personal Instagram accounts is coming too, but that will be in early 2019 according to Instagram.

(via Instagram via The Verge)