Scrolling through Instagram conversations can often be a pain, as the app only shows you 10 to 15 messages at a time. Thankfully, Instagram allows users to download their entire inbox so that they can access everything offline, including chat history from blocked contacts, providing they haven’t been deleted.
Download Instagram Chats on Mobile
The steps to download your Instagram chats on mobile are the same on both iPhone and Android. Head to your Instagram profile page, and select the hamburger icon in the top right. Select Your Activity, scroll down to the very bottom, and select Download your information.
This will open the Meta Accounts Center. Select the Download or transfer information button. On the Meta accounts and profiles screen, select your Instagram profile, and tap Next on the bottom.
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At this point, choose how much information you need. Select Some of your information, scroll down, and check Messages. You can also select Likes and Saves to download your liked and saved Instagram posts. Tap the Next button.
Select Download to device to download your chats’ zipped file to your phone. Choose the date range for the period of time in which you’d like to download your Instagram chats. Use the Custom setting to select exact dates if required, and hit Save.
Ensure that the Format is set to HTML and choose the Media Quality.
At last, select Create files. Instagram will notify you that the download has begun and is in progress. The app will take a few hours to prepare the download.
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After a few hours, head back to Your Activity -> Download your information. After that, you should see the file ready to be downloaded. Hit the Download button, and a zipped file of all your Instagram chats will be downloaded to your phone.
If you do not want the zipped file of your Instagram chats to eat up your phone storage, upload them to Google Drive.
Download Instagram Chats to Google Drive
Follow the process above until you reach the “What do you want to do with your information?” screen. Choose Transfer to destination.
Select Destination -> Google Drive, tap Save, select Next -> Connect, choose the desired Google account, and grant access to Meta.
Select the date range, and tap Start Transfer to begin the downloading process. You will now have to enter your Instagram password.
Download Instagram Chats to PC
Log in to Instagram on your browser, and select More in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Select Your activity.
Click on Download your information, and select Continue. Instagram will redirect you to the Meta Account Center, where you will follow much of the same process described above for mobile.
Click on Download or transfer information, select your Instagram account, and click Next. Select Some of your information.
Select Messages (and Likes and Saves if you want), click Next, and choose Download to device. Choose the date range and media quality for your files (retain HTML as the format), and click Create files to begin the download process.
Once the process finishes, revisit the Meta accounts center by selecting More ->Your activity -> Download your information -> Continue. At this point, the zipped file will be ready to download. Click Download.
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Unzip Your Downloaded Instagram Messages
Once you have downloaded the zipped file containing your Instagram chats, head to your Downloads folder, right-click on the file, and click on Extract All.
Select the destination folder, and hit Extract. The unzipped file will contain two folders: “your_instagram_activity” and “files”. Additionally, you can open the “start_here.html” file, which opens all your chats, allowing you to open any of them and browse through messages, images, and videos.
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Not only does downloading your Instagram chats help keep your conversations safe, but it also allows you to go through older messages and media uninterrupted. Furthermore, this method also works for contacts you may have blocked (or vice versa).
Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots by Samarveer Singh.
