Sharing links on Instagram: profile links, Story stickers and DMs

Where a link goes decides who sees it. Instagram gives you a few places for one, and some it treats differently.

This post covers the places Instagram's own pages describe: the profile, Stories and messages.

How many links can a profile have?

The Help Centre says: "You can add up to five websites to your Instagram profile by going to Edit Profile and selecting Links." It also notes: "This feature isn't available on computers, but it is available on these devices", and names Android and iPhone.

So the profile is the one place you can keep several links at once.

Where can you add a link in Stories?

Instagram's announcement, from 27 October 2021, said: "we're expanding the ability to add links in Stories to all accounts". It describes the tool: "Use the Link sticker to add a link to your Instagram story. When people tap on the sticker, they'll be redirected."

It also said accounts that repeatedly share hate speech or misinformation "will not have access to the Link sticker".

What about links in messages?

Instagram's feature page says a message request "can only contain text" until the request is accepted. So a link sent to someone who does not follow you travels as text in a request.

Links to posts have their own rule. The Help Centre says a link to a post from a private account can only be viewed by approved followers.

• Profile: up to five websites, on Android and iPhone.
• Stories: the Link sticker, if your account has it.
• Messages: a request carries text only.
• Private-account posts: only approved followers can open the link.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm whether a URL in a caption or a comment is clickable. We looked for an Instagram page that says so and did not find one, so we will not say.

Questions people ask