As of December 4, 2024: Personal Instagram accounts are no longer supported from Meta and have been converted to Placeholder accounts.

Due to Meta's API requirements, in order to publish directly to Instagram, you'll need to ensure that:

the Instagram account is a Professional Business or Creator account
the Instagram account is linked to a Facebook Page.

Connect your Instagram account for direct publishing

Once you've confirmed you have the correct permissions (Instagram account is a Business or Creator account and is connected to a Facebook Page), you can set up your account in HeyOrca.

From your workspace, go to Settings.
From the Integrations tab, click Add account.
Find Instagram from the Integration options modal and click Connect
Click Continue from the connection page, then follow the authorization prompts from Meta.
Once your account is successfully connected, go back to your workspace Settings > Integrations.
Locate the account you want to change the publishing settings and select Custom Publishing Method from the dropdown menu to the right of the channel name.
Select the publishing method for each post type (Post, Story and Reel)

You'll have the option to select direct or notification publishing as your desired publishing method. You can also choose the user who will be the notification receiver and the notification type using this menu.

Supported Post types

With HeyOrca, you can plan and publish Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels and using the right dimensions can help your content look its best once published on Instagram.

Posts

HeyOrca supports single-image posts, video posts, and carousel posts for Instagram and requires feed aspect ratios between 1.91:1 and 4:5.

Recommended image sizes

Format	Recommended size	Aspect ratio
Landscape post	1080 × 566 px	1.91:1
Vertical post	1080 × 1350 px	4:5
Square post	1080 × 1080 px	1:1
Carousel post	1080 × 1350 px	4:5

A few things to keep in mind for Posts:

Portrait (4:5) posts typically take up the most space in the feed and can help your content stand out more while scrolling
Landscape posts appear smaller in-feed, which can make text harder to read
All content appears vertically cropped in the Instagram grid preview, so keeping important visuals centred is always a good idea
If your image uses an unsupported ratio, Instagram may automatically crop it after publishing

💡Tip: For the best quality, we recommend uploading images that are 1080 pixels wide whenever possible. Instagram may compress or resize images that fall outside their recommended specs.

Stories

Instagram Stories are designed for full-screen vertical viewing. We recommended a Story size of:

1080 × 1920 px
Aspect ratio: 9:16

Instagram’s interface overlays can cover parts of your Story content. To avoid text or visuals being hidden:

Keep key content centred within the frame
Avoid placing text too close to the top or bottom edges
Aim to keep important content within the 1080 × 1610 px “safe area”

Reels

Instagram Reels are optimized for vertical video and full-screen viewing. We recommend a Reel size of:

Feed view: 1080 × 1920 px (9:16)
Grid preview: 1080 × 1440 px (3:4)

A few things to know about Reels in HeyOrca:

Reels published directly through HeyOrca will automatically appear on your Instagram feed and in your Grid Preview
You can choose a frame from your video as the Reel cover image, or upload a custom thumbnail
Reels published through HeyOrca use original audio only since Instagram’s trending audio library is not currently available through the API

Best Practices for publishing on Instagram in HeyOrca

Design mobile-first since most people view Instagram on their phones
Use vertical formats whenever possible for Stories and Reels
Keep text large and easy to read on smaller screens
Avoid placing important visuals near the edges of your design
Keep carousel slides the same dimensions for a smoother swipe experience

Limitations

Instagram direct publishing in HeyOrca relies on specific permissions granted by Meta’s API, which means some Instagram features that are available natively in the channel are limited or unavailable when posting through third-party tools like HeyOrca.

🕗 TL;DR: These limitations with trending audio, carousel posts, stories, and location tagging do apply to most third-party scheduling tools (not just HeyOrca) due to Meta’s Graph API limitations.

Here are the most common limitations to keep in mind:

Trending audio and music

Instagram’s trending audio and licensed music library is not available through their API
To add trending audio to a post, set it to notification publishing to post natively in the Instagram app.

Carousel posts

While Instagram allows for up to 20 images in a carousel in their app, in HeyOrca carousel posts are limited to 10 images/videos per post due to their API.
Carousels with more than 10 media items should be set to notification publishing to post natively in the Instagram app.

⚠️ If your post includes more than 10 media, it will automatically change the publishing type to notification.

Stories

While you can schedule stories to Instagram through HeyOrca, Meta’s API has limited support for additional Story features through direct publishing, which include:

Multiple story slides in a single sequence
Stickers
Polls and quizzes
GIFs
Music stickers
Interactive elements

If you’re looking to include any of these in your Story, set the post to notification publishing to post natively in the Instagram app.

Reels editing features

Instagram’s native editing tools are not available through the API, including:

Filters and effects
Templates
Transitions
Beat syncing
Remix features

Videos should be fully edited before uploading to HeyOrca.

Tagging and location limitations

Some Instagram tagging and location features may not work consistently when publishing through third-party tools like HeyOrca due to limitations within Instagram’s API.

Certain accounts may not be taggable: Some Instagram accounts have privacy, visibility, or tagging settings that prevent third-party platforms from tagging them successfully through the API.
Location tags can occasionally cause publishing failures: Instagram location data is managed through Meta’s API, and invalid or unsupported location IDs can sometimes prevent a post from publishing successfully.
Collaboration post features may require native Instagram publishing: Some Instagram features, such as Collab posts, are not fully supported through third-party publishing APIs and may need to be completed directly within the Instagram app after publishing.

Analytics

Instagram analytics are also provided through Meta’s API, which means:

Some metrics may take up to 48 hours to appear
Historical data may be limited
Some insights may differ slightly from Instagram’s native reporting

FAQ: Instagram Accounts

How do I connect my Instagram account to a Facebook page

From Facebook, click Profile or your profile picture to go to your profile.
Select Edit profile
If you have a business account, scroll to Public business information.
If you have a creator account, scroll to Profile information.
Click Page, then click Connect or create.
Click Continue
Click Login to Facebook, then click Continue to review your Facebook account. (If you’d like to use a different account, click Switch Facebook account.)
Choose the Page you’d like to connect to, then click Connect.
(Or, tap Create a new Facebook Page, and follow the steps to create a Page.

Your Instagram account should now be connected to the Facebook Page.

👀 FYI: If you select an existing Page, you may be prompted to log into your personal Facebook account. This is a required authentication step to confirm that your personal Facebook account has access to the Page. For more information about connecting a Facebook page, click here.

My Instagram post is showing as Published but it didn't publish.

Double-check that the post didn’t get switched to Notification publishing.

If it did, the post likely had a limitation that the API couldn't process
If it did not, please reach out to Customer Care with a shareable link to the post.

The quality of my image/video looks different when it’s published. Does HeyOrca compress image files?

Instagram can occasionally adjust or compress uploaded media automatically since large file sizes may appear lower quality after publishing due to compression applied by the social platform itself.

HeyOrca uploads the original file you attach to your post, but some platforms may automatically compress images during processing, which can sometimes affect image sharpness, detail, or colour.

Why can't I publish more than 10 images/video in HeyOrca?

While Instagram allows for users to upload 20 images for a carousel natively in the Instagram app, HeyOrca users are limited to 10 images due to API limitations from Meta. Posts with more than 10 images can be published via Notification Publishing.