Instagram is my window into the world of cute cats and dogs. Whenever I see a particularly good video, I miss the ability to download Instagram videos. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts, you can download Instagram videos on iPhone. Before you ask, yes you can download photos and stories via the same shortcut. I’ve been using this shortcut to create a giant library of cuteness and so can you.
As a long-time user of Instagram shortcuts, I can tell you one thing for sure: This shortcut will stop working after some time. Instagram keeps making changes that break other services and automation workflows. This is why I’m going to link to Routine Hub instead of the iCloud link to this shortcut this time. Routine Hub is an excellent site that catalogues shortcuts and adds some nice features such as giving creators the ability to update their shortcuts. This link will allow you to download the latest version of the shortcut whenever you read this article.
How to Download Instagram Photos and Videos
I’ve written about downloading and installing Siri Shortcuts before, so you should check that out in case you want to figure out how to install shortcuts on iOS. The steps to download photos and videos from Instagram are the same.
- Open the Instagram Media Saver shortcut page on Routine Hub. Tap Get Shortcut to go to the iCloud page for the shortcut and download it from there.
- Open any photo or video on Instagram and tap the … button above the post. Tap Share to…, scroll down, and tap Instagram Media Saver.
- When you run it for the first time, this shortcut may ask for permission to access the Instagram website and your photo library. Once you grant these permissions, it’ll save the photo or video to your iPhone.
How to Download Instagram Stories
The same Instagram Media Saver shortcut can save photos and videos from Instagram Stories as long as you login to the social media site from Safari. It does not work if you use the Instagram app to run the shortcut.
- Open Instagram.com on Safari, log in to your account, and open any Instagram Story.
- Tap the … icon at the bottom.
- Now tap the Share button in Safari’s bottom bar and tap Instagram Media Saver.
- The shortcut will now download Instagram Stories to your photo library.
I’ll be writing about many more such Siri Shortcuts on Beautiful Pixels. Watch this space for more useful tutorials around Siri Shortcuts.