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How to zoom in on Instagram photos

AndroidPIT Instagram search teaser
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Everybody loves Instagram, but most of us wish there were a few extra features in the app, like the ability to zoom into photos to check out a particular detail. Instagram doesn't include this feature because it wants the app experience to be as fast as possible, but what if I told you that the Android system itself had a built-in Instagram zoom feature? Read on to find out how to zoom into Instagram photos.

I've written previously about the awesome Accessibility settings on Android that pretty much no one ever uses. But there's a whole bunch of cool stuff in there that's worth checking out. One of those things is a system-wide zoom gesture.

Called Magnification Gestures, all you need to do is go to your Accessibility settings and flip the switch, then you'll have two different magnification gestures at hand that work anywhere in Android (except the navigation bar and on the keyboard). That means it works in Instagram – and any other app for that matter.

AndroidPIT Lollipop accessibility settings magnification gestures
Android's accessibility settings offer a cool feature called magnification gestures. / © ANDROIDPIT

Once you've enabled Magnification Gestures you just triple-tap anywhere on the screen to zoom in. Your screen will get an orange border to indicate you're magnified (in case you couldn't tell).

Once you're zoomed in you just use two finger swipes to pan and the usual pinch gestures to zoom in or out. To get out of magnification, simply triple-tap again.

AndroidPIT Instagram zoom into photo
Now you can easily check out details in Instagram or Snapchat. / © ANDROIDPIT

You can also temporarily zoom in if you don't want to fully ''enter magnification mode''. To quickly zoom in and look around, just triple-tap and hold. You can then swipe around to move. The gestures will be reversed for some odd reason but it's a much more intuitive way to zoom in quickly.

If you want to get all old-school about zooming in you can always take a screenshot and then zoom into that. You'll be stuck with a screenshot of course, but maybe you want to keep that picture anyway. This trick also works for Snapchat.

Did you know you could workaround the lack of zoom in Instagram? Any other Instagram tips to share?

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Kris Carlon

Kris Carlon
Senior Editor

Kris is a former AndroidPIT Editor who came to the team via a lengthy period spent traveling and relying on technology to keep him in touch with the outside world. He can usually be found juggling three phones at once and poring over G+ posts, Reddit and RSS feeds.

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5 comments
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  • 1
    adam dennis Nov 16, 2016 Link to comment

    Let's make its easy , just download "InstaSaver 2" then you can download any video,photo from Instagram and zoom its

    www.goo.gl/glG4vO

    Best regards.


  • linda gould 1
    linda gould Feb 26, 2016 Link to comment

    hi


  • 1
    Swayam Das Sep 4, 2015 Link to comment

    The modded view for the instagram client might not work cause I have seen it zoom up to a high pixel level. Furthermore, the users might not agree to use this cause it involves security procedures as mentioned.


  • 1
    ben Jun 23, 2015 Link to comment

    You can use Zoom For Instagram for Android.
    It's amazingly simple.
    Just look For "Zoom For Instagram" on Google Play.


  • 1
    Mahmood Ahmed Jun 10, 2015 Link to comment

    or you can use modded instagram client such as oginsta+, where you can zoom and download anything

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