How to create multiple Instagram accounts and switch …
February 11, 2021
Sometimes, one Instagram account is not enough. Whether you’re starting a business, managing a feed for your job, or just want a place specifically reserved for showcasing your photography, it’s easier than ever to manage multiple Instagram accounts at once.
Back in the day, you had to log completely out of one Instagram account before you could sign in to another. But nowadays, Instagram allows you to switch back and forth between accounts without logging out. Here’s everything you need to know about juggling several Instagrams.
How many Instagram accounts can you have?
According to Instagram’s Help Center, you can have up to five different Instagram accounts, which you can switch between without logging out. (This is not to say that you can’t have more than five, but after you reach that limit, you’ll have to log out and log back in to access additional profiles. )
It’s also important to note that this option is only available for iPhones and Androids with the 7. 15 update (available in the App Store and the Google Play Store). So if you are unable to add additional accounts, you may need to update your Instagram app.
Can you create multiple Instagram accounts with one email address?
No. At this time, every Instagram account must have an individual email address. You can’t create multiple Instagram accounts with the same email address.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to create a new email address for every new account you make. If you create a second Instagram account via the app, you can sign up with your phone number instead of your email address.
Creating and managing multiple accounts on Instagram
Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to dive into all the different ways to create and manage several accounts on Instagram. In the following section, you’ll find all the instructions you need to create new profiles, along with the answers to some of the top questions about having multiple accounts.
How to create a new Instagram account
Before share how to manage multiple accounts, let’s start with the basics: creating an Instagram account. Whether it’s your first account or your third, the same rules apply.
There are two ways you can create an Instagram account: from the app on your iPhone and from the website on your computer. Below are instructions for creating an Instagram account on your iPhone:
Open your Instagram the icon of your profile photo at the bottom-right of the your account name. Select Add AccountSelect Create New Account. Create a username and password and fill out your profile Next.
If you want to create an Instagram account from your desktop, follow these instructions:
Open your desktop to you already have an Instagram account, log out of Sign your email a username and password and fill out your profile Done.
Using either of these options will create a brand new Instagram account for you to use.
How to create a second Instagram account
When you add a new account to your app following the instructions in the previous section, the account will automatically be added in your app. That way, you can easily switch back and forth between them.
However, if you need to add a second account that you created elsewhere or at an earlier time, here’s how you can do that:
Open your Instagram the icon of your profile photo at the bottom-right of the the three horizontal lines at the top-right of the SettingsScroll to the bottom of the screen and select Add Log Into Existing Account. Enter your account information and log in.
Note that after you add a new account to your Instagram app, you will receive notifications from all of the profiles you’ve added unless you manually turn off your notifications. So if you don’t want your phone to blow up all day with messages and likes, it might be a good idea to put your secondary account on silent.
How to switch accounts on Instagram
Here’s how to switch between multiple Instagram accounts using the app:
Open your Instagram the icon of your profile photo at the bottom-right of the your username at the top of the the account you’d like to switch to.
And that’s it! After you’ve added your new account to the app, you can switch back and forth whenever you want.
How to remove a second Instagram account from the app
Not all Instagrams were meant to last forever. So if you find yourself needing to remove an Instagram account from your app, there are just a few simple steps you need to follow.
Here’s how to remove a secondary account from your Instagram app:
Open your Instagram the icon of your profile photo at the bottom-right of the the three horizontal lines at the top-right of the SettingsScroll to the bottom of the screen and select Login the blue checkmark next to the account you wish to Remove.
While following these steps will remove the account from your Instagram app, it will not disable or delete the account.
Can you merge Instagram accounts?
Even though you can jump back and forth between up to five Instagram accounts at a time, you cannot merge those accounts.
At this time, there is no way to merge followers and content from multiple accounts into a single account. The closest you can get is following the same people on both accounts and reposting the same photos.
In this modern-day world of social media and internet personalities, more people than ever are managing multiple social media accounts at once. Whether you’re doing this for work or to show off your many cool hobbies, we hope this guide makes having multiple Instagram accounts a breeze. And for more Instagram tips, check out our guide to adding multiple photos to Instagram Stories and posts. Cheers!
This was about:Instagram
How to Create Multiple Instagram Accounts (And Why You …
Instagram is an increasingly popular social media platform focused on photos. You can find family and friends, and let them know what you’re up to, where you’ve been, and what you’re interested in. But it’s difficult juggling which topics your followers will engage with.
So you’ve decided to separate your hobbies by creating multiple Instagram accounts. Is that possible? Is it easy to switch between them? And is it the right decision? We answer all of your questions about creating multiple Instagram accounts.
Tip: If you’re building different brands, be sure to give each of your Instagram accounts its own unique theme.
Reasons to Create Multiple Instagram Accounts
Why should you create and manage more than one Instagram account? There are a few benefits of having numerous profiles:
Separating personal life from your work. If you have a business, it’s important to keep your professional life separate from your private life. You don’t want potential customers seeing what you get up to each weekend. Equally, bombarding mates with business-related posts won’t strengthen your friendship. It’s the same reason you shouldn’t add colleagues on Facebook!
Taking advantage of business perks. Having a work account gives you access to more analytical data which will help you grow your customer base. You can also pay for promoted advertisements, which isn’t possible through a personal account.
Changing Privacy Settings. You don’t always want everyone knowing what you’re doing. By having numerous accounts, you can have one accessible to anyone and another solely for people you personally know. It’s also handy if one is linked to Facebook and/or Twitter but you don’t want peers on those networks to automatically see all your posts.
Maintaining different interests. If you want to keep followers, you need to cater to their expectations. By creating numerous profiles, you can manage what you put online and pitch certain interests to particular audiences.
Are there any drawbacks of having multiple accounts? There are, but they’re minor. Namely, you have to switch accounts before posting, which, as we’ll cover, isn’t as stressful as it sounds.
The other potential problem is if you post to the wrong account. But that’s easily remedied: go on the ellipsis at the top right-hand corner of your post and click Delete. You can also Archive the post to hide it from your profile.
Now that we have tackled the why, let’s delve into the how.
How to Create a Second Instagram Account
How do you create a new Instagram account? It’s very simple: you do it in much the same way you created your first one.
The easiest way is by using a different sign-in. Instagram gives you the option to sign up using an email address, phone number, or Facebook account. If you can remember which you used to originally create an account, choose one of the other options. Check your Inbox, Facebook Profile, and SMS to make sure.
You can create another account via your browser, by navigating to the Instagram login page then clicking on Sign Up and following the instructions. But it’s easier if you do it using your smartphone.
Open the Instagram app and go to your Profile by clicking on the symbol in the bottom-right of your screen. This will either show your profile picture, Story, or, if you haven’t set a featured image, a silhouette. Click on the three horizontal lines at the top right, then Settings > Add Account.
If you’ve already got Facebook installed on your smartphone, it will ask you to Continue as (Your Name). Otherwise, click Don’t have an account? Sign Up. Toggle between tabs depending on the method you want to use to make a new account: email address or phone number. In the case of the latter, Instagram will send you a confirmation code to make sure it’s properly linked.
How Can You Switch Between Instagram Accounts?
This is probably what you’re worried about—after all, by creating a new profile, you don’t want to get locked out of your old one and lose precious photos! But you needn’t be concerned. It’s incredibly simple.
Through a desktop, you just need to sign in and out of each account as you would other services. If you’re using Instagram on your smartphone or tablet, though, it’s an intuitive app that remembers if you have multiple profiles.
Go to your profile and click on the down-arrow by your username at the top of your screen. Just click on the account you want to switch to. No, you won’t have to log in again (unless you have updated or uninstalled and reinstalled the app).
How to Create More Instagram Accounts
Once you’ve effectively let Instagram know you’re interested in having numerous accounts, it makes adding a third, fourth, and fifth easier still.
Just go to your profile and click on your username, as if you’re switching logins. At the bottom, go to + Add Account. This redirects you to the interface asking you to link to Facebook or sign up otherwise.
You’ve Made a New Account: Now What?
Approach this as you did when you first signed up to Instagram.
You need to add your name, which is the account display name. It will suggest a username based on existing accounts, but you can change this. The next page will require a password—don’t reuse the one connected to your other profile in case that gets leaked. Ideally, you want different passwords for all your online accounts anyway. If that’s an issue, here are the best password managers.
You’ll then need to confirm your age.
Instagram is pointless if you don’t follow anyone, so connect with friends, family, and similar accounts. Obviously, you need to add a profile photo and short biography, utilizing hashtags. If it’s a business account, you should consider adding links to your Instagram posts.
How Many Instagram Accounts Can I Have?
It depends entirely on how many different options you have to sign up.
Instagram encourages you to sign in using an email address, phone number, and Facebook profile. If you don’t connect your Facebook to a single Instagram account, that’s three separate ways. You can also add more using different email addresses, so if you have one for work and one for your private life, you could use both of these.
Instagram only lets you add five accounts to one device. In theory, you can create more by changing names between profiles; however, you won’t be able to easily switch profiles through the single app. Don’t forget that you can sign in through a web browser too.
But do you really need more than five? It’s up to you, but things can certainly get complicated.
How to Unlink Two or More Instagram Accounts
How do you remove an Instagram account you’ve added to a device?
Once more, this is done through your Profile. Visit the account you want to unlink, and click on the three horizontal lines. Then go to Settings and choose either Log out of (Account Name) or Log out of All Accounts. The latter will leave you with a blank app from which you can start again entirely.
Some have reported problems unlinking single profiles, so if this happens to you, try Log out of All Accounts, and sign into the one you still want to access through the app. If this doesn’t work, log on again and delete the app. You’ll then need to reinstall it.
Just make sure you remember all of your passwords, or you’ll need to reset those too.
If it still doesn’t work for you, go back to Settings then click Help & Report a Problem. Instagram should get back to you with instructions on what to do next.
How to Delete Your Instagram Account
Instagram isn’t for everyone. And even if you like Instagram, having multiple accounts may not be for you. So what happens if you want to leave the platform altogether or remove your second profile?
You have two main options, one less “Scorched Earth” than the other. So here’s how to deactivate or delete your Instagram account in just a couple of easy steps.
15 Windows Command Prompt (CMD) Commands You Must KnowThe command prompt is still a powerful Windows tool. Here are the most useful CMD commands every Windows user needs to know.
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Philip Bates
(275 Articles Published)
When he’s not watching television, reading books ‘n’ Marvel comics, listening to The Killers, and obsessing over script ideas, Philip Bates pretends to be a freelance writer. He enjoys collecting everything.
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How Youth Are Reinventing Instagram and Why Having …
By Tanvi Kanchinadam, Skyler Sallick, Quinn Robinson, Jessi Whitby, Sonia Kim, Alexa Hasse, Sandra Cortesi, and Andres Lombana-BermudezIllustrations by Elsa Brown, Rebecca Smith, Melanie Tan, and Claudia ThomasToday’s social media landscape offers a crucial space for youth to interact with others, form and maintain relationships, and develop media relevant attitudes, skills, norms, and practices. Rich in visual and audiovisual content, and with an array of opportunities to engage in identity exploration, creative expression, and building and curating audiences and networks, the social media environment is multifaceted and complex. Friendship and gossip, romance and drama, reputation and competition are a part of an online, networked sociality layered with social norms similar to those that exist this Medium post, the Youth and Media team at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society discuss youth’s (ages 12–18) engagement on Instagram, which is currently the second most popular platform among youth in the U. S. (after YouTube) according to a recent Pew Research Center “YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens, ” Pew Research CenterIn an effort to highlight the range of perspectives and voices from our intergenerational team (including team members attending high school and college), we have structured this post as a multimodal compilation that includes:A group reflection on the social dynamics of InstagramA personal story around the social aspects of Instagram; andAn audio podcast based on a roundtable conversation we had within the Youth and Media team at the Berkman Klein Center. Rinstas, Finstas,… You-Name-It-Instas: Experimenting with Identity and Creative ExpressionThe two terms that are currently the most important to understand in the world of Instagram are rinsta (“real Instagram”) and finsta (“fake Instagram”). Illustration by Rebecca SmithFor most youth, a rinsta is their default account, where they manage their (often carefully curated) online public persona. Filled with photos captured in perfect lighting, witty captions, and strategic hashtags, the existence and prevalence of these types of Instagram accounts help support the notion that youth seek to present a socially desirable self online. Affordances of Instagram and other online spaces, such as asynchronicity, help “allow young people to craft strategic self-representations by deciding what information to highlight, downplay, exaggerate, or leave out entirely” (Gardner & Davis, 2013, p. 63) contrast, a finsta (also called a “fun Instagram, ” “fake Instagram, ” and interchangeably used with sinsta or “second Instagram”) is almost always one’s secondary account. A finsta is sometimes treated and perceived as more private than a rinsta. Compared to rinstas, finstas consist of less curated and performative content, typically meant to be seen by a user’s closest friends. This content might include references to inside jokes, a series of unflattering or humorous selfies, or memes that users believe their core group of friends might find funny. Given that users often share personal content on finstas, they tend to have a highly selective and small group of followers. Finstas may also have specific names depending on the identities, themes, and/or hobbies youth want to explore. For example, a finsta dedicated to dogs may be called a “dogsta, ” or a “petsta;” a finsta about donuts may be termed a “donutsta. ” These types of finstas are not necessarily treated as particularly private or personal and might amass a large group of followers based on a shared several Youth and Media team members attest to, the content and number of followers on a finsta can, 16, has a very active shared finsta account with a close friend (i. e., they both post content on the account). The finsta features jokes, memes, and other tidbits of personal information about their lives. The account is extremely private — only a select group of friends knows the account name and has permission to follow, 19, has a finsta that is largely for comedic purposes, with no particularly serious or sensitive content. The posts are only accessible to her closest family and, 17, has a finsta that the Youth and Media team has dubbed a “Quinnsta. ” This account is an online diary of his daily life with no followers; it is intended only for his personal use (i. e., Quinn is the sole user and there are no followers). Illustration by Claudia ThomasWhile some Youth and Media members felt that maintaining multiple Instagram profiles may be burdensome and unintuitive, Tanvi, Skyler, and Quinn found keeping multiple accounts simple — and preferable to having a single account. The three of them explained that, in their opinion, Instagram’s account switch feature — which allows users to switch to a different account (one can have up to five Instagram accounts) with the push of a button — contributes to the widespread finsta/rinsta possibility of having multiple accounts on Instagram reminds us that identity development is an important part of youth life and that social media platforms offer not only one, but several opportunities, for identity exploration, expression, and formation. As several Internet researchers have argued (boyd & Ellison 2007; Madden et al., 2013; Marwick & boyd 2010; Palfrey & Gasser, 2016; Papacharissi, 2010), social media enables young people to explore their identities and experiment with self-presentation according to different contexts and audiences. In the case of Instagram, creating and maintaining rinstas, finstas, and you-name-it-instas can be understood as ways for youth to engage in this form of identity exploration and impression llage by Elsa Brown and Andres Lombana-BermudezYouth navigate complex social spaces while interacting on social media platforms. In our group discussion, we agreed that offline social and cultural norms from peer groups and specific contexts are often re-created on Instagram. This observation aligns with research revealing the significant overlap between youth’s offline and online social networks (Davis, 2010; Martin & Ito, 2015; Reich, Subrahmanyam, & Espinoza, 2012; Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008). As Tanvi explained, “You can’t take offline interactions in a vacuum, and you can’t take online interactions in a vacuum. Both of them coexist and depend on each other. Leaving my online life would have a significant impact on my offline life. ”Collage by Elsa Brown and Andres Lombana-BermudezTanvi, Skyler, and Quinn offered three reasons for why granting a peer access to a finsta is indicative of general social standing and/or friendship with that person. First, as most finsta owners only allow select people to follow them, belonging to that exclusive group can signal closeness and that the account owner likes that, finsta owners may want their followers to interact with their account in a particular way. For example, some finsta owners may desire positive reinforcement via followers’ likes and comments, which may be perceived as valuable social capital. However, others may not have such expectations regarding participation. In some cases, the fact that a person has been allowed to follow a finsta — rather than the number of likes or comments the person leaves — is more indicative of their social standing with the account owner. Each team member had differing opinions about the importance of each of these factors, which revealed not only the diversity of finstas but also the diversity of users’ preferences when it comes to follower participation. However, it was generally agreed that, compared to the rinsta, the finsta was a safe space due to selective the context of a rinsta, Tanvi, Skyler, and Quinn explained that an account’s follower/following ratio represents one of the key markers of one’s social capital. The desired ratio is to follow fewer people than the number of people who follow you (for example, if you follow 100 people, and 500 people follow you, then you have a more desired ratio than a user who follows 100 people with 100 people following the user). Therefore, one’s follower/following ratio can be conceptualized as a measure of one’s popularity in his/her direct social circles, and lustration by Melanie Tan and Claudia ThomasTanvi, Skyler, and Quinn agreed that whether people were engaging with a “real insta” or a “fake insta, ” all social media content is heavily curated. However, this was not viewed as a false projection of self (a common critique of young people from adults). Instead, it was seen as the human desire of many people, regardless of age, to control their self-presentation and put their best foot forward, whether in the offline or the digital sphere. When asked which Instagram accounts felt more “real” or “fake, ” Skyler, Quinn, and Tanvi explained that the “rinsta” and “finsta” were just names. Both profiles encapsulated the challenges and opportunities of social media in the creation of multiple “real” networked conversation highlighted the complexities and nuances behind the team members’ Instagram practices. It may be telling to note that Skyler, Tanvi, and Quinn attended the same high school in New England. They acknowledge that their shared school network — along with their personal friendships, intimate relationships, and even professional networks — might have played a role in shaping their expectations, behaviors, and practices on Instagram. For them, Instagram is an important extension of their social life, and being on the platform involves a diverse set of modes of engagement that vary according to their social relationships and the online and offline cultures they are a part Quinn Robinson (17, high school student)When I open Instagram every morning — alongside one billion others — I tend to be greeted by one of three possibilities. My feed is filled with filtered vacation pictures and selfies, each one meticulously framed to maximize engagement through comments, reshares, and likes (with a caption that probably took an hour to craft). It could be full of blurry, unflattering close-ups and memes featuring subtitles that describe an awkward moment that had just happened. Or, my feed could be covered in graphics advertising the latest singles and EP releases from artists I enjoy. While all three of these scenarios occur on the same application, the reason they are so different is simple: I have three Instagram first, colloquially called a “rinsta, ” represents my starter account. I created it sometime during sixth grade at the request of my friends, and over the years I’ve built up over 1, 000 followers even though the account is private (i. e., only approved followers can view my posts). Generally, most people (including myself) do a basic vetting process before letting someone join their ‘audience’, and will accept a follower if they’re a friend, friend of a friend, or even just a reputable-looking account. In that sense, my rinsta is a more public-facing profile than the ‘private’ setting might have you second account is a “finsta, ” which usually stands for “fake insta. ” On this one, I and other people typically post memes, jokes, updates on our lives, and occasionally long-form reflections on things we’re struggling with. The audience for my “finsta” is restricted to my closest friends; the people who I’m comfortable sharing more than just small talk with. On various finsta accounts that I follow, I’ve witnessed recaps of and reflections around fights with parents, college-induced stress, and depressive and anxious episodes. I originally created my third Instagram account (which would technically also qualify as a finsta) to showcase my attempts at music production, but now I mainly use it to discover a recent music project or browse spring/summer fashion collections. I’m not alone in having multiple Instagram accounts — I definitely was not the first person to develop a “finsta” — and from what I see at my high school, the practice is becoming increasingly common. Some of my friends have accounts about their dog, food they’ve eaten, memes, and even Lego rinsta serves almost as a social resume for the way I live my life (in the adult world, a comparable example might be one’s LinkedIn or Facebook profile): the worse it looks, the worse I look. There are clear social norms established around how to present one’s ‘ideal’ self to casual acquaintances (or the public, including potential college admissions officers), which has become embedded in the finsta is a way around this. The friends who follow my finsta are the people who already know my strange habits and sense of humor. They know me well. I’m able to express myself without considering the unwritten social rules that apply when expressing myself to a larger, semi-public audience. At the same time, though, there’s still a perceived pressure to act in a certain way: even if the group has been narrowed down compared to my rinsta, rules still remain. Curiously, they move in the opposite direction here. People viewing a finsta expect the raw, the unpolished, the stream of consciousness. Posting a VSCO-filtered picture with a well-thought-out caption would seem strange, while a blurry selfie with a long rant about a stressful day wouldn’t bat an implicit and explicit rules me and my peers perceive as relevant don’t just dictate what we post and when, but also who ends up seeing it. To enhance an audience on Instagram, many people (particularly on their rinsta) are constantly trying to preserve and improve their “ratio” of followers to people they follow. They often maintain this ratio through a combination of the following strategies: 1) they find out who has unfollowed them through a third-party app and unfollow them in return, 2) they unfollow people who they don’t interact with or don’t want to see the posts of, and/or 3) they accept follows only not to follow ’s a constant behind-the-scenes power struggle for social and cultural capital — a struggle that we all understand, but few openly acknowledge. Some of us choose not to play the game by not having an account at all, but that often has real-world effects in terms of how they are perceived. In my opinion, they immediately become an outsider to the larger “in” group of Instagram users through their refusal to an outsider’s perspective, these interactions and rules might seem fairly inconsequential, but so do many of the social norms that govern our face-to-face lives. Yes, we often present ourselves on social media as better than we really are (at least better than we think we are), but if thrown in front of a real-world crowd of brand new people, I doubt many would show off their unfiltered selves immediately. Everyone chooses the decor of their house, the car they drive, the clothes they wear, facial expressions they make, and the language they choose to speak in to present what is, essentially, their own “brand. ” Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous theory of “The Look” was developed to describe how people changed their behavior in the presence of others. As one example, some individuals engage in code-switching — that is, alternating between two or more languages in a single conversation, depending on the context — in the hopes of being perceived by others in a certain way. The issues of presenting “false identities” and dealing with the power dynamics of popularity aren’t born from social media. They’re exacerbated by those who might’ve rolled their eyes for the first half of this post, think back to your time in high school. Were you really the fiercely independent free spirit you want today’s teenagers to be, or did you share their self-censorship and promotion? The Youth and Media team has produced a 12-minute podcast about youth media practices on Instagram that complements the social dynamics around rinstas/finstas discussed above. The podcast is based on a group conversation we had as a team (including team members in high school, college, and older) in August, and it has been edited in order to highlight key topics around the use of multiple Instagram accounts, including the relationship between the online/offline world; social norms and rules surrounding multiple account usage; and the ways young people engage in identity exploration on the platform.