How to Use Panoramas on Instagram

Square photos are one of the hallmarks of Instagram, with the site constraining all uploaded photos to a strict 1:1 height-to-width ratio. Although you can send photos of any size to Instagram, the service crops them into a square format during the upload process. Cropping photos in this way can ruin the effect of panoramas, forcing you to leave out detail towards the edges of your photo. However, you can work around this scenario using apps such as Squaready for iOS or InstaSize for Android. These apps add a border to the top and bottom of your photos, automatically bumping images up to an Instagram-approved size.

Tap the Squaready icon to open the Squaready app.

Tap the “Import” button and then select “Albums” from the “Select Import Source” menu. Tap “OK” on the following pop-up menu to grant the app access to your phone's photos.

Select the panorama photo that you wish to upload to Instagram. The photo will appear on the Squaready workspace with borders automatically applied to the top and bottom in order to make the image square.

Tap the “Export” button and then select “Instagram” from the “Select Export Destination” list.

Select a resolution for the image from the “Select Image Quality” pop-up box. The higher the resolution you select, the longer the image will take to transfer.

Select “Open in Instagram” from the pop-up menu to open the image in the Instagram app.

Select “Next” and then tap “Share” to share the panorama on Instagram.

Tap the InstaSize button to open the InstaSize app.

Tap the “Library” button and select “Gallery” from the “Get Image From” menu.

Select the panorama that you want to upload to Instagram.

Tap the “InstaSize” button to add borders to the image in order to make it square.

Tap “Share” and then select “Instagram” from the Share menu. The image will open in the Instagram app.

Select “Next” and then tap “Share” to share the panorama on Instagram.