What To Know About Responding To Your Friends On Instagram With Photos & Videos

Between Highlights, Reels, and every other fun feature on Instagram these days, there's enough to keep even the most casual social media user busy. But even one of the most popular features on the app — a standard Instagram post — leaves some asking questions. For example, how do you respond to an Instagram post using a photo or a video? If the post is on someone's Instagram Story, it's fairly simple. If it's a post that shows up on your feed, you're out of luck.

You Can Reply To Instagram Stories With Photos

Instagram users can respond directly to Instagram Stories with a photo, video, or Boomerang by tapping the added camera icon at the bottom left of the screen while the Story is playing. Once this is done, you are in "camera reply mode" and can use all of Instagram's fun features to personalize the response, such as filters, stickers, and Rewind. According to the Instagram blog, Story responses will slide into a recipient's Direct Messages inbox.

You Cannot Reply To A Post With A Photo

Adding a photo to an Instagram comment or post you see on your feed is not currently an option on the app; the feature is limited to Instagram Stories. Right now, you can only include text or emojis in your Instagram comment.

While you can’t include a photo or video in an Instagram comment (you’ll have to do that on Facebook), you can reply to the Instagram user directly with a photo. Whether you want to send a funny meme related to their post, or share your physical reaction, you can do that in the DMs.

Instagram Story responses are just feature allowing users to personalize their interactions over the popular social media site. After all, visual conversations are the essence of Instagram. You can personalize your experience even further with Reels, check out the "recently deleted" feature, or make a few IGTV videos.