How You Can Download Instagram Videos or Reels

Instagram is “no longer a photo-sharing app”. The app’s parent company Facebook wants the photo-sharing app to be the hub for sharing videos of all kinds, from TikTok-style Reels to YouTube-like longer videos on IGTV. But we are not here to write about why Facebook keeps copying what other social media platforms do, but we write about how you can download that exciting you see on the platform; Instagram to mention —so you get it to watch it offline.

You’re scrolling through Instagram and you get to see that one, to or more videos/reels you like, and if you don’t have a good memory that will remember where you saw it/them, luckily, it’s possible to download Instagram videos, save them offline, and take them with you wherever you go.

Before we show you how to download, there are a couple of things you ought to know. One; these methods tend to break every once in a while, Two; Instagram tends to change its APIs, which means that the method for downloading changes along with them. However, there is a small chance that any of these methods could stop working, if only temporarily.

To start downloading Instagram videos or reels, you need an internet connection of course; so here’s how to download on iPhone, Android, and on the Desktop.

How to download Instagram videos on iPhone

One of the best ways to download Instagram videos on iPhone is through Apple’s Siri Shortcuts app. It’s where you’ll find all kinds of extensions and automation for iOS. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Download the Shortcuts app on your iPhone.
2. Open the app, go to the gallery tab, and tap any shortcut you see there.
3. Download the shortcut and run it once. Doing this will allow you to run shortcuts made by people in the iOS automation community.
4. After running any shortcut once on your device, go to settings >> shortcuts.
5. Enable allow untrusted shortcuts.
6. Now we’re ready to download the shortcut that will help you download media from Instagram. Go to the RoutineHub page for Instagram download using your iPhone.
7. On your device, tap the get shortcut button—once on RoutineHub, and again on iCloud.com’s download page.
8. This will open the Instagram download shortcut in the shortcuts app on your device. Scroll to the bottom and tap the red add untrusted shortcut button to the shortcut on your iPhone.
9. Finally, download the scriptable app from the App Store. It allows you to run JavaScript on iPhone, and it’ll be used to download Instagram videos. In a nutshell, Instagram limits how many times you can access its server if you’re not logged in, and scriptable will help you get around that limitation.
10. With everything downloaded and set up, open Instagram and tap the three-dots icon in the top-right corner of any post, and tap Share to.
11. You’ll now see the iPhone share sheet. Scroll down and select Instagram Download. The shortcut will ask for access to some websites, your photo gallery, and will walk you through a short setup process.
12. Complete all of this and you’ll be asked to log in to Instagram using a browser inside Scriptable. While doing that, be sure to select the Save Login Info option to ensure that Scriptable keeps you logged in to Instagram.

How to download Instagram videos on Android.

On Android, there are several apps that let you download Instagram videos. We’re going to use one of them to quickly save videos for offline viewing. Follow these steps:

1. Download Video Downloader for Instagram.
2. Open Instagram and go to the video you want to download. Tap the three-dots icon in the top-right.
3. Tap Copy Link.
4. Switch back to Video Downloader for Instagram and the app will automatically paste the link you just copied. It even begins downloading the video for you.
5. Check your Photos or Gallery after the video has been downloaded.

How to download Instagram videos on desktop app

If you want to download Instagram videos on a desktop or a laptop, you can also use an app to do so.

1. Download 4K Video Downloader on Windows, macOS, or Ubuntu Linux.
2. Open Instagram on your web browser, go to the video you need to download, and copy its link. (Copying the link, right-click on the video, and then select copy link)
3. Open 4K Video Downloader and paste in the link to start the download.
4. The app will show you a pop-up allowing you to view the format and save the location for the file. (If you only want to grab the audio, you can simply choose to extract audio from the dropdown menu.) When ready, click download.
5. When it’s done downloading, right-click the video’s name in 4K Video Downloader and select Play to watch it right away or Show in Finder/Folder to view where the video file is saved on your computer.

How to download Instagram videos using the web.

For those who are unable to (or don’t want to), third-party apps to their devices, you can use the web. Web-based Instagram downloaders will do the job just fine. There are plenty of them, most of which work fairly well, so a quick Google search should lead you to decent options. We can recommend Igram, and to download from it;

1. Copy the link to the Instagram video from your app.
2. Open a browser on your phone or your computer >> open the Igram website and paste the link in the search bar.
3. Click the download button.
4. Igram will download and save the video to your computer.

Notably, these same methods do apply when downloading photos as well.