You’ll soon be able to download an archive of the content shared on your Instagram account.
Following criticism about data portability, Instagram will soon let you download an archive of the photos, videos and messages you’ve shared or exchanged through the service.
“We are building a new data portability tool,” an Instagram spokesperson acknowledged in an interview with TechCrunch. “You’ll soon be able to download a copy of what you’ve shared on Instagram, including your photos, videos and messages.”
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Instagram hasn’t said whether or not we’ll be permitted to also export our lists of followers, likes, comments, stories and captions. It’s also unclear if photos and videos will export in the full resolution that they’re uploaded or displayed in, or whether they’ll be compressed.
“At a high level, the tool allows you to download and export what you have shared on Instagram” is all Instagram had to say about it. They promised to share more details “very soon when we actually launch the tool.”
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This long-overdue feature will help those wanting to leave the service to close their Instagram account without losing your photos, videos and messages. It could even make it much easier for users to switch to a competing photo-sharing social network.
The European Union’s upcoming GDPR privacy law requires data portability.