Life

Here’s What To Do If You Can’t Add Profile & Hashtag Links To Your Instagram Bio

by Kaitlyn Wylde
Drew Angerer/Getty Images News/Getty Images

As you may have already noticed on Mar. 21, Instagram has introduced a new update that will epically enhance every user's bio, and allow everyone to personalize their page more than ever before. But, if you're noticing the update seems to be working on everyone else's profile except yours, you're probably wondering why you can't add profile and hashtag links to your Instagram bio, too — because duh, who wants to feel left out? No one wants to deal with update FOMO, especially when it's an update that's as transformative as this one.

First things first: Here's what you need to know about the update. The new feature gives users' Instagram bios clickable capabilities so that when we link out to someone's profile in our bio, because they're part of how we want to represent ourselves — a significant other, an employer, a side hustle, a cause — their profile will become an active link that people can actually click through to. The same goes for hashtags — we can list tags that are important to us, or that we identify with, and people viewing our profile can directly check them out too, just by clicking on them. The feature eliminates the hassle of having to memorize the spelling and retype the profile names or hashtags into the search bar, and makes the bio much more interactive. In the past, Instagram bios were pretty static — there wasn't much to look at and definitely nothing to click on. But now that they're more interactive, we're going to be be able to express ourselves more creatively and connect ourselves quite literally to the people we're connected to.

Alas, if you're staring at your edit profile page and not seeing any of these update capabilities, you're likely experiencing the aforementioned FOMO, so let's fix that. Here's what to do if you're not seeing the latest Instagram update.

Quit & Reopen

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Sometimes you might actually have the update data loaded into your app, but you just need to quit it and reopen it to trigger the actual update process. So before your freak out, close it out and open it back up and head to your edit profile page to see if the update is there. You'll know the update has loaded if you type in a @ or a # and a search bar comes up that allows you to click the official profile or hashtag just as you would in a comment or caption.

Check For Updates

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Still not seeing the update? Head to the App Store and check for updates. If you don't have your phone programmed to automatically update, you'll have to manually upgrade to the latest version of Instagram which is the only place you'll find the update.

Delete & Reinstall

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If it's the end of the day, everyone you know has the update and you're still not seeing it, you can delete the app and reinstall it from the app store. This method has been known to help eliminate bugs and glitches and prompt updates, though it's not a proven hack.

Wait It Out

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If you still don't see the update it likely means that you're going to have to wait it out. Instagram likes to roll out updates gradually so that they can limit the amount of overload glitches that can occur when everyone's using a feature at the same time. Don't take it personally, just take a chill pill, sit back and relax and trust that the update will eventually make its way to your phone and you'll be able to use the app just like everyone else. There's no reason to pout about it, it's all for the best, as you don't want to get the update before the kinks have been ironed out. So hang in there, an interactive clickable bio is coming your way.