How to Use the Instagram Map

• Instagram has a new Map feature that lets you see the most popular spots in your area and view local Stories.
• To open the Instagram Map, tap the location tag in a post or search for a city’s name.
• You can also use Instagram’s Map to bookmark locations you want to visit or share them with friends.

One of Snapchat’s flagship features is the Snap Map, which lets users view public Snapchat Stories from anywhere in the world.

Although it’s taken a few years, Instagram has its own version of that feature now too. The Instagram Map lets you watch Stories, find new accounts to follow, make travel plans, and more.

How to use the Instagram Map

You’ve got a few ways to open the Instagram Map. 

First, you can tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, then search for the location you want to see. In the results, tap Places in the top-right corner, then pick any spot on the list to open the map on that location.

Second, if someone has tagged a location in their post, you can tap on the location to open the map on that spot.

Once the map is open, you can drag your finger to scroll around the world, and pinch to zoom in or out. There’s no limit to how far you can go on the map — as long as people are using Instagram in the spot you want, you’ll find results.

When you tap Search this area at the top of the screen, the menu at the bottom will update to show you all the most popular places in the area you’re looking at. You can either tap the spot you want on the map (they’ll have a bubble on top of them) or select it from the list to see all the posts and Stories people have made there.

And once you’ve selected a location, you’ve got a few more options. Aside from seeing all the posts made there, you can tap the bookmark icon to save the location so you can come back to it later. Tapping the paper airplane icon lets you share the location with any of your Instagram contacts. These are great if you’re making travel plans and scouting places to visit.

Finally, tapping the three dots at the very top of the location’s info menu lets you copy the address or open it in Apple Maps or Google Maps.