How to Sign Up for Instagram - Free Instagram Tutorials

As we explained in our previous tutorial, Instagram is a service that is based primarily on mobile devices. Therefore, you’ll have to download the Instagram application on your tablet computer or smart phone before you can join Instagram. See our How to Download Instagram tutorial for instructions on how to do that.

Note that this tutorial demonstrates how to sign up for Instagram on an Android-powered smart phone, but the sign-up process for an iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device is pretty much identical.

To create an Instagram account:

Find the Instagram application on your mobile device, and tap it to open it.
If you’ve never used Instagram before, you will see that Sign Up is automatically selected. You can choose to sign up with your email address, or you can sign up using your Facebook credentials.

Assuming that you want to sign up via email, tap Enter Your Email and type in your email address. Then tap Next.
You will be asked to provide your full name. Type it in and tap Next, or if you don’t want to provide your name, tap Skip in the top-right corner.
Regardless of whether or not you provide your full name for Instagram, you will be asked to choose a user name. Type it in and then tap Next.
Next, you will be asked to provide a password, so type that in now. It must be at least 6 characters long. (NOTE: You can tap the eye icon to hide the characters in your password as you type them, to protect them from anyone trying to snoop over your shoulder.)

See our How to Make a Strong Password tutorial for hints on how to create a secure password.

After you’ve typed in your password, tap Next.
Next, Instagram will ask you to choose a profile photo. You have three options:

– Take a photo with your mobile device’s camera and use it as your profile photo
– Use a photo that is already on your mobile device
– Import a photo from your Facebook or Twitter account

If you don’t feel like providing a profile photo right now, you can also tap Skip.
Instagram will now ask if you want to find friends to follow on Instagram based on whom you’re already connected with on Facebook. If you do, tap Find Friends on Facebook and follow the instructions (which will likely include logging into your Facebook account. If you’d like to find friends later, tap Skip instead. (You will have to tap Yes, Skip in a confirmation window if you choose this option.)
Next, Instagram will ask if it can check the contacts in your mobile device to see if any of them are on Instagram. If you want to do this, click Find Contacts to Follow. If you’d rather do it later, click Skip. (Again, you will have to tap Yes, Skip to confirm that you really want to skip this step.)
Now, you will be asked to follow certain other popular people or brands on Instagram. Find someone or something that you’re interested in, and tap Follow. (The button will change to say “Following” and turn green.)

Once you’re done, tap the checkmark in the top-right corner.