If you use Instagram for business, you are probably aware of the countless benefits of using this social media platform to connect with your target audience and promote your products or services.
Instagram itself provides marketers with a ton of useful features. But sometimes you need some extra help to get to the next level. This is where Instagram apps come in.
Here we have compiled the best Instagram apps for:
- Photo editing. These are applications that help you edit, resize and add filters to your photos.
- Planning and design. These apps help your brand add cool elements like collages and graphics.
- Video tools. These apps enhance the way your brand shoots, develops and edits videos.
- Audience engagement, analytics and data. Use Instagram apps to track how your brand is engaging with your audience and monitor the performance of your content.
Let’s start!
Instagram editing apps
1. VSCO (iOS and Android)
Source: VSCO on the Apple Store.
Why should you try this
VSCO is one of the original and most popular photo editing apps. In fact, it’s so popular that over 205 million Instagram posts contain the #VSCO hashtag.
There are 10 free preset filters that make your phone photos look like they were taken on film. VSCO also offers a range of photo editing tools to help enhance the quality of your photos, such as contrast, saturation, grain, crop, and skew tools.
To access over 200 preset filters and advanced photo editing tools, upgrade to the free version of this Instagram app and become a VSCO member.
2. Avatan Photo Editor (iOS and Android)
Source: Avatan Photo Editor on the Apple Store.
Why should you try this
Avatan Photo Editor not only offers effects and filters to overlay on the original photo, but also makes it easy to retouch photos and create your own effects. The basic version of this photo editing app is free, although it is possible to get more features or advanced tools with in-app purchases.
3. Snapseed (iOS and Android)
Source: Snapseed on the App Store.
Why should you try this
With this Instagram photo editing app, you can work with both JPG files and RAW files, making it a powerful tool for professional photographers.
Besides filtering your photos with presets, you can do serious photo editing tasks in Snapseed. There are 29 tools and functions that allow you to edit photos by removing elements (or even people) from a photo. You can also adjust building geometry, use curves to control image brightness, and enhance images with incredible precision.
4. Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor (iOS and Android)
Source: Adobe Lightroom on the App Store.
Why should you try this
Adobe products are known for their powerful photo editing capabilities, and Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor is no exception. Capture and edit raw images with the app’s editing tools and enhance your photos to professional quality by adjusting their hue, saturation, exposure, shadows and more.
Try out the preset filters and get inspired by the changes other Lightroom users have made in the Discover section. Plus, take advantage of the interactive tutorials to improve your photo editing skills.
5. Color Story (iOS and Android)
Source: Color Story on Google Play.
Why should you try this
This photo editing app is designed to make the colors in your photos pop. There are 20 free editing tools as well as filters, effects and presets designed by professional photographers and influencers.
There are also some advanced editing tools, and its Instagram grid planning preview tool will help you make sure your brand’s Instagram grid looks unified and cohesive.
Instagram layout apps
6. Integration with Instagram Grid Hootsuite (Hootsuite app directory)
Why should you try this
The Instagram Grid app allows you to create a grid of nine images and post them to your Instagram account directly from your Hootsuite dashboard. You can schedule your grids ahead of time and post them when your audience is most active on Instagram (to customize your posts for maximum engagement).
Note. Currently, Instagram Grid only works with personal Instagram accounts. Business accounts are not supported yet.
7. Layout from Instagram (iOS and Android)
Source: Layout from Instagram on the App Store.
Why should you try this
Create collages with ease with this free Instagram app by combining up to nine photos in various combinations. Layout makes it easy to create different collage layouts, combine collages with filters, add other personalized elements and share them on Instagram. You can also select photos from your library or shoot on the go using the app’s built-in photo booth.
8. Design Kit (iOS)
Source: App Store Design Kit.
Why should you try this
This Instagram app is made by the creators of A Color Story. Use it to personalize and customize the content on your Instagram feed by overlaying stickers, fonts, designs and textures on your photos.
The app boasts over 60 different fonts, over 200 collage layouts, and over 200 design options. And realistic brushes and different backgrounds like metallic, marble and mottled will add texture and depth to your photos.
9. AppForType (iOS and Android)
Source: AppForType on the App Store.
Why should you try this
This is one of the best Instagram apps for typography lovers. In addition to designs, frames, and collage templates, AppForType offers 60 font options that you can overlay on your brand photo. What really makes this Instagram app stand out is that you can take a photo of your handwriting and upload it to the app.
10. Expand (iOS and Android)
Source: Unfold on the App Store.
Why should you try this
Unfold lets you style your Instagram feed like never before. With a full set of template collections (of which Selena Gomez is a fan), you can create beautiful Instagram feeds that look like they were designed by professionals.
With over 400 custom templates to choose from, exclusive fonts, stickers, filters and effects, Unfold is the perfect tool for creating beautiful Instagram posts. Not to mention, Unfold also offers in-app editing of Instagram posts and stories.
Instagram Video Editing Apps
11. InShot – Video Editor (iOS and Android)
Source: InShot on the App Store.
Why should you try this
It is one of the best Instagram video editing apps mainly because it is so comprehensive. You can trim, cut, split, merge and trim video clips. And it’s easy to adjust settings such as brightness and saturation.
In addition, this app has Instagram-specific features, such as creating square videos to display on Instagram.
12. Go Pro (iOS and Android)
Source: GoPro on the App Store.
Why should you try this
If you’re shooting epic outdoor video content for Instagram with your GoPro camera, the GoPro app will make your life so much easier.
While shooting, use your phone to adjust the video or time lapse settings and get a clear preview of your shot. Once your video is recorded, make adjustments—like freezing your favorite frames, movie-like transitions, or playing with speed, perspective, and color—right in the GoPro app.
13. Magisto Video Editor (iOS and Android)
Source: Magisto Video Editor on the App Store.
Why should you try this
This Instagram app is an AI based video tool. Magisto uses artificial intelligence to find the best, most engaging parts of your footage to create a video that will resonate with your audience. It also uses its algorithm for editing, effects and transitions to take your clip to the next level.
14. Clips (iOS)
Source: Clips on the App Store.
Why should you try this
Clips is an Instagram app created by Apple that lets you spice up your videos with quirky and eye-catching features. Add embedded captions to your videos, or spice up videos with stickers, emojis, and music. Plus, you can share directly from clips to Instagram.
You need an iPhone 13, iPad mini 6th generation, and iPad Pro 3rd generation or later to use this app.
15. FilmoraGo (iOS)
Source: FilmoraGo on the App Store.
Why should you try this
FilmoraGo provides you with professional video editing tools that are easy enough for even the most novice editor. Take advantage of the Curve Shifting feature to combine speed up and slow down in one clip. In addition, new AR camera features let you create memoji/animoji in the app that you can add to your next video or Instagram story.
Analytics Apps for Instagram
16. Hootsuite mobile app (iOS and Android)
Why should you try this
The Hootsuite app allows you to track your performance and measure your success across every social network – Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.
The Hootsuite app tracks many of Instagram’s analytics, including your account reach, engagement rate, and follower growth, as well as detailed performance statistics for each individual post. You can create insight reports and easily share data related to your brand goals with your team and other stakeholders.
But Hootsuite is more than an Instagram analytics tool. Using the app, you can schedule Instagram posts later, even if you can’t be at your workplace. This way, you will always post content at the right time to engage your audience and fill your social media content calendar. Hootsuite also makes it easy to follow your competitors’ Instagram content and track hashtags.
Learn more about Hootsuite analytics for Instagram here:
17. Panoramic ideas
Source: Hootsuite App Catalog.
Why should you try this
Use this app with Hootsuite to improve your Instagram analytics. Panoramiq Insights by Synaptive gives you detailed analytics for your Instagram account, including follower demographics, views, new followers, profile views, and link clicks.
And if your business has multiple Instagram accounts, this app can track analytics for two accounts. Share the results collected by the application by exporting analytical reports as a spreadsheet or PDF file.
18. Team for Instagram (iOS)
Source: Team for Instagram on the App Store.
Why should you try this
The team provides many unique metrics and shares the most important statistics for your brand on a daily basis. It also generates a report card that evaluates everything from the number of your followers to the frequency of your posts. You can also get hashtag and caption recommendations, caption writing support, and recommendations for the best hashtags for your content.
19. Popular hashtags from StatStory (iOS and Android)
Source: Popular hashtags from StatStory on the App Store.
Why should you try this
Adding hashtags to your Instagram posts is a great way to increase audience engagement. This Instagram app supports your brand’s hashtag strategy by helping you use popular hashtags. It also uses an algorithm to find hashtags that are relevant to your brand and recommends a mix of popular and less popular hashtags to help you reach a wide audience.
20. Clean It Up (iOS)
Source: Clean It Up on the App Store
Why should you try this
If you are noticing a lot of spam comments or want to clean up the Instagram accounts your brand interacts with, this is one of the best Instagram apps to clean up your follower list and reduce comments.
With one tap, this app will bulk clean up your follower list, bulk block bot accounts or inactive followers, bulk delete duplicate content, bulk reject and bulk like messages.
Applications for interacting with Instagram
21. Boost Hootsuite
Why should you try this
If you want to get more out of your Instagram posts, Hootsuite Boost can help. With this Instagram app, you can leverage your advertising budget to get your top-performing Facebook posts to more people.
Promote individual posts with the Single Post Promote feature, or select Auto Promote to automatically promote posts that meet specific performance goals or campaign criteria.
Boost also makes it easy to track the performance of your boosted posts so you can see how they’re performing and make adjustments as needed.
22. Plan for carousels, stories, and videos in Hootsuite
Why should you try this
Hootsuite Business accounts can schedule Reels and Stories carousels in the Hootsuite app and dashboard.
Video scheduling is a great tactic for brands that want to create cohesive and well-planned videos but don’t have the time or resources to post them all at once. Scheduling videos in Hootsuite can be done in the same way as an Instagram story. Find out how to schedule reels here.
Carousels are still the most popular on Instagram. Use Hootsuite to schedule carousels just like you would a regular Instagram post. Learn how to schedule carousels here.
@hootsuite We just made your life easier 😌
23. Lately.ai integration with Hootsuite
Source: Lately.ai
Why should you try this
Lately.ai is an artificial intelligence tool that writes social media posts for you. It does this by looking at the analytics of any social account you have connected to Hootsuite. Lately then uses machine learning to understand your writing style and build a model based on that information. It then applies this model to the writing of your messages. Lately.ai can help you grow your audience with custom captions that inspire engagement.
24. Repost for Instagram #Repost (iOS)
Source: Repost for Instagram on the App Store
Why should you try this
Have you ever seen a post on Instagram and wanted to share it on your feed? Repost for Instagram allows you to do just that! This application allows you to post photos and videos of other users, paying tribute to the original creator. You can even add your own comments before sharing. This Instagram app can help you get new followers who might be interested in your content.