Finally, Instagram Solves Their Terrible @-Reply Problem With Twitter Auto-Tweets

It’s funny how things have a way of working out. Just yesterday I was lamenting how I keep getting tweets from people referencing @joshuaschnell on Instagram. I have no idea who @joshuaschnell is on Instagram, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve had random people auto-tweeting me from their Instagram account. You see, any time you auto tweet something from Instagram, the photo service would keep the @-reply structure they have set up, and spits that out to Twitter, often sending the wrong replies to the wrong people. Today Instagram has finally done something about the problem.

According to a blogpost on the Instagram website, Instagram @-replies now translate to Twitter handles all automagically. One catch, the user has to have signed up to Instagram with a Twitter account.

From the post:

If the @mentioned user has connected Instagram to Twitter:

  • The user’s Instagram username will appear in the photo caption
  • The user’s Twitter username will appear in the tweet

If the @mentioned user has not connected Instagram to Twitter:

  • The user’s Instagram username will appear in the photo caption
  • The @ sign will be removed from the username when shared to Twitter

Here’s the problem: I haven’t signed up to Instagram with my personal Twitter account, and instead just use the @macgasm account. If that’s similar for the rest of you, you’re out of luck. Looks like it might be time for me to go and create a random Instagram account using my Twitter handle just to have this problem disappear from my Twitter timeline. Why Instagram never just assigned usernames on Twitter usernames to begin with is beyond me.

Lesson here, alway try to get the same username on all of your social networks. I should have known better. Message to @joshuaschnell on Instagram. I’m coming for you!

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld… Full Bio