Instagram introduced the ability to share short fifteen second videos recently. It was a welcome addition to the application that so far was the best known for sharing images of every possible meal your friends had. Videos for Instagram has been a hit, and pretty much been the worst nightmare of another popular short video sharing app called Vine. Several users have already deleted and gotten rid of Vine already because of the extra features and larger community that Instagram already offers.
Graph showing a sharp decline in videos shared via Vine as compared to Instagram. Source: Marketingland
You would perhaps be interested in seeing our comparison between Vine and Instagram here
So, with Instagram already the poplar way of sharing videos, one thing is for sure. There are several videos uploaded that you would want to rip off. Since these videos are obviously not Youtube videos there is no straightforward download tool just as yet. Though, we are fairly sure an Android app will come eventually which will help you download these videos for free, easily. Till then though, here is a work around how you can download any video saved on Instagram. Do note that this method was tested and was working fine on Chrome Browser.
Step 1:
The first thing you would want to do obviously is to have an Instagram account of your own and select the video you want to rip off. Once you have done that, you would have to open your Instagram feed on the web browser on your computer. To do that simply log in to Instagram here.
Step 2:
Scroll to the video you want to download. You can recognise a video by a small play symbol on the top right corner of the cover image. When you get to the video, you will see a small three dot menu sort of a button on the extreme right hand side of the image just above the comments section.
Step 3:
When you click the menu button, a small pop up will occur and you must select the option to ‘View Video Page’. A new page will open, and there you should Right Click on the page and ‘View Page Source’.
Step 4:
In the source page hit ‘Control+F’ to open the Search window and type in ‘.mp4’ in the field. You have to navigate to the every first ‘.mp4’ search result.
Step 5:
You will now copy the entire File name of the first .mp4 file that the search result bought up.
Step 6:
Open ‘Bit.ly’ by visiting this and copy the link you copied from Instagram source feed to the Shorten field in ‘Bit.ly’. The links will be shortened, and a new page will open. Simply right click on the first link and click on ‘Save As’. You can save the .mp4 file at whatever destination you wish to then on your PC.
The file plays smooth with just about every player capable of playing .mp4 extension. There is no option of downloading the HD version or anything similar because Instagram uses a square resolution to record videos.
Hope this little tutorial will help you save those videos which were too good to just see once in your Instagram feed. If you have any doubts or questions, feel free to fill the comments sections below.
