Chapter 10
Interacting with Other Instagrammers
IN THIS CHAPTER
Learning how to “like,” comment on, and share other people’s content
Replying to other people’s comments on your own posts
Reporting inappropriate comments
Half the fun of Instagram is in interacting with the people who connect with you and your posts. In this chapter, we explain how to interact with other content by liking and commenting on other people’s posts. We also explain how to respond to people’s comments on your own posts and how to report less-than-honorable comments.
Interacting with the Posts in Your Feed
Your home feed is what you see when you tap the house icon from the bottom navigation bar. This feed is full of the content from all the people you follow on Instagram.
Instagram employs an algorithm that sorts through all the content created by each person you follow. This content is then re-sorted in your feed, displaying the content you’re most likely to engage with near the top of your feed. There are multiple components that impact the algorithm, including how often you interact with an account’s content, the type of content you typically interact with, the time you spend on Instagram, and how popular a piece of content is with other users.
Below each photo or video on Instagram are three icons: the heart, the speech bubble, and the paper airplane (see Figure 10-1). Here’s what each of those icons is for:
Heart: Tap the heart icon to like a post. After you’ve liked a post, the heart turns red.
A shortcut for liking a post is to double-tap the photo or video. If the post is a carousel (in which multiple photos or videos are in one post), double-tapping any image or video will assign the “like” to the entire post, not the individual image on which you tapped.Speech bubble: Tap the speech bubble to leave a comment on the post. The comment screen opens; here, you can read the original caption and see all other comments on the post. You see your cursor flashing in the comment box where it says, “Add a comment.” Type your comment in this area and tap Post when you’re done.
You don’t have any formatting options on comments so everything will be one long paragraph. You also can’t add images, GIFs, or other items to comments. You can use emojis, however.Paper airplane: Tap the paper airplane to share the post with someone else. You can type a message to be included with the post you share. Then select the person you want to send it to from the list of names. If you follow a lot of people, you can use the Search bar to find the specific person you want to send it to. That person will receive the message as a direct message where he or she can then view the original post.
If someone has her account set to private, the photo can only be shared to other people that follow her. If you share it to someone who is not following her, that person won’t be able to see the post.Additional sharing methods allow you to share a link from anyone’s Instagram post. Tap the three-dot button at the top of a post on Instagram and select Copy Link to save the link to your clipboard. You can then post this link anywhere — in an email, in a direct message, or on social media elsewhere.
Tapping Share Link offers a similar method for sharing the post, but instead of copying the link to your clipboard, you get a list of apps you can select to share the link to.
FIGURE 10-1: You can use the three icons below the post to like, comment on, or share the post.
Replying to Comments on Your Own Posts
On Instagram, it’s considered good etiquette to reply to people who leave comments on your posts. Not every comment warrants a response, but Instagram makes it easy to respond if you want to.
Responding to comments from the Notifications tab
Whenever someone comments on your post, you receive a notification in the Notifications tab, which you can access by tapping the Heart icon in the lower navigation bar on Instagram.
To quickly acknowledge the comment, you can tap the heart below the comment. The heart will turn red and the person who wrote the comment will receive a notification that you “liked” the comment.
You can also quick reply to the comment simply by tapping the Reply button below the comment (see Figure 10-2). This opens the comment response box and keyboard. Type your response and tap Post to send your reply.
Some users may see the comment box as Comment as [username],” as shown in Figure 10-2. Other users may see the comment box as Add a Comment. Different operating systems and different devices sometimes have slightly different features.
FIGURE 10-2: Replying to comments on your posts creates meaningful conversations.
In some situations, there may be multiple replies to a thread, or you may be mentioned in someone else’s comment. In this case, when you tap the Reply option in your notifications feed, you’ll notice that the username of the person you’re replying to is listed at the beginning of the comment box. This is to ensure they’re mentioned in the reply and they’ll get the notification that you replied to their comment.
Responding to comments from the post itself
You can always go to any one of your Instagram posts and tap the comment bubble below the image or video to access all the comments on that post.
Similar to the Notifications tab, you can tap the heart next to the comment to acknowledge the comment with a “like” and the heart will turn red while also sending a notification to the person who posted it. You can tap the Reply option to reply directly to any comment left on your post.
Any replies to the original comment are indented and nested beneath the original comment. This keeps the dialog connected to the original comment so anyone can see that thread of conversation.
If you want to reference someone in a comment, type the at (@) symbol followed directly by the person’s username. For example, you would type @jenns_trends to mention author Jenn Herman in an Instagram comment. This ensures she’s notified of the reference so she can see and view that comment or conversation.
When you add the @ symbol, a list of names from those you commonly interact with will appear. As you start typing the letters of the person’s name or username, more suggestions will appear. You don’t need to type the full person’s name. When you see them in the suggested list, you can tap on the person’s name to select it.
Deciding to delete a comment
You may want to delete a comment from your post. In this section, we show you how to do that.
iPhone and iPad users
If you’re using an iPhone or an iPad and you want to delete a comment, find the comment on the post. The swipe the comment to the left to open the comment options. Tap the red trash can option on the right to delete the comment (see Figure 10-3).
FIGURE 10-3: Deleting a comment on iPhone and iPad.
After you delete a comment, a red bar appears at the top of the comments screen so you can undo the deletion. If you don’t tap the bar within five seconds, the comment is deleted permanently.
Android smartphone and tablet users
To delete a comment on an Android device, tap the comment on the post. A blue bar at the top of the screen appears with the exclamation point icon and the trash can icon. Tap the trash can icon to delete the selected comment (see Figure 10-4).
FIGURE 10-4: Deleting a comment on Android smartphones and tablets.
If you want to delete more than one comment, you can scroll through the comments and select multiple comments by tapping each one and then tapping the trash can icon to delete all the selected comments.
After you delete a comment, a red bar appears at the top of the comments screen so you can undo the deletion. If you don’t tap the bar within 5 seconds, the comment is deleted permanently.
Website users
If you’re using the website version of Instagram, you can also delete comments from any of your posts. Here’s how to delete a comment:
- Click or tap the profile icon in the upper-right corner of the web page.
- Scroll or swipe until you see the thumbnail image of the post that contains the comment.
- Click or tap the thumbnail image.
Hover over the comment.
You see a three-dot button appear in the upper-right corner of the comment.
- Tap the three-dot button.
Keeping Instagram Healthy by Reporting the Bad Eggs
Instagram asks that you resolve disputes between you and another person who posts a photo, video, or comment that you think may violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines. For example, if someone’s comment contains inaccurate information about you, you can post a comment or send a direct message and ask the commenter to remove the comment.
If the commenter won’t cooperate or if the comment is clearly a violation of the Community Guidelines (such as a threat of violence), Instagram strongly recommends that you don’t escalate the situation yourself. Instead, report the user to Instagram and have Instagram staffers review the situation.
If you refuse to heed Instagram’s warning and decide to attack the commenter with nasty comments of your own, you may find yourself in trouble if the commenter reports you for harassment.
Reporting a commenter
Before you report a commenter, review the latest Community Guidelines at https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119. If you still believe the commenter must be reported to Instagram for further action, you can use Instagram’s built-in reporting tools.
You can report a user from your iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone or tablet. The following sections offer more details on how to report someone using these devices.
From the website version of Instagram, you can report a user by hovering over the person’s comment to reveal the three-dot button. Tap the three-dot button, and select Report from the pop-up menu.
Reporting from an iOS device
If you’re reading comments on your iOS device and you come across a comment that violates the Community Guidelines, tap and hold down on the comment in the list and then swipe to the left.
The gray report button appears to the right of the comment between the reply and delete buttons. Tap the button to open the menu at the bottom of the screen, and then select the Spam or Scam option or the Abusive Comment option.
If you select Spam or Scam, the menu closes and the comment disappears from the Comments screen so you can continue to read comments. If you select Abusive Content, the Report Comment screen opens. You can decide how to report the comment and take any additional steps to get more information. For example, if you choose “I don’t like the comment,” the Blocking People page appears so you can proceed to block the commenter.
Reporting from an Android device
When you see a comment on your Android device that you think violates the Community Guidelines, tap the comment in the list. The comment gets highlighted in a light blue background, and a blue bar appears at the top of the screen. In that top blue bar is an exclamation point. Tap the exclamation point to open the menu, and then tap one of the reporting options: Spam or Scam or Abusive Content.
When you tap Spam or Scam, the menu closes and the comment disappears. Now you can get back to reading other comments. When you tap Abusive Comment, the Report Comment screen opens so you can decide how to report the comment and take any additional steps or get more information.
Blocking a commenter
If a commenter is obnoxious, that alone isn’t a reason to report the commenter to Instagram, but you can block the commenter from your content. That user will no longer be able to see your content or leave any comments on your posts. Instagram doesn’t tell users that they’ve been blocked.
Here’s how to block a user:
In the comments below the photo or from the comments screen, tap the username of the commenter.
The username is the first text you see in the comment and is in bold text.
- In the commenter’s profile page, tap the three-dot button in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- Tap Block from the pop-up menu.
- Follow the prompts from the remaining screens to confirm the person is blocked.
Tap the < icon to return to the Comments screen.
The blocked user’s comments no longer appear on the screen.
To unblock someone, follow the same steps, except tap Unblock in Step 3.
To block someone from the desktop, the steps are similar. Click on the person’s username, and click the three-dot button from the person’s profile. Select Block the User from the pop-up menu, and follow the prompts to block that person.