Using Instagram reminder notifications

On Instagram you can either schedule a post to publish automatically or choose to finish it yourself manually using reminder notifications. Finishing a post using reminder notifications enables can give you more creative freedom with your content because you can use native Instagram app features like trending audio, filters, and stickers.
Additionally, there may be technical reasons why your post can’t automatically publish (such as your media falling outside of Instagram’s accepted aspect ratio range).

In order to use reminder notifications, you'll need to grant Instagram access to All Photos in your phone's settings.

This article contains the following sections:

  1. How to identify reminders in the queue or calendar
  2. Finishing a post using reminder notifications
  3. Finding your past reminders
  4. Adjusting posting default to “reminders only”
  5. Resetting post reminder notifications
  6. Who receives the reminder when it’s time to post

How to identify reminders in the queue or calendar

Posts scheduled as reminders will display a bell icon in the queue and calendar:

Buffer post as reminder bell icon

Finishing a post using reminder notifications

  1. When it's time for your post to be published, you'll receive a push notification to your phone. Tapping the alert will bring you to a preview of your Instagram post within the Buffer mobile app.
  2. From there, tap Open in Instagram.

📝 If you missed the push notification, you can always re-trigger it by heading to the Past Reminders tab. 

  1. If you're managing multiple Instagram accounts, make sure you are switched to the correct account before you publish your post.
  2. You can then choose whether to post to your Feed or Story.
  3. Once inside Instagram, crop your image, use filters, enhance your video with music, add stickers, and publish your post just as you would if you were sharing your post or story natively.
    • For posts that contain multiple images, tap into your photo library to find all of your scheduled images.

    • To insert your caption, tap in the caption area on iOS or tap the Aa option on Android to paste it in from your phone’s clipboard. 

      Publishing the post when the reminder comes to your phone

📝 Pre-scheduled locations will not be included on posts sent through as reminders, so you may wish to add the location back in before sharing the post.

Finding your post reminders

If you accidentally miss a reminder notification, you can share it again by going to the Sent tab. You'll find all Instagram posts that have been scheduled, including those that were scheduled using reminder notifications. 
On mobile
If you’re using the Buffer mobile app, go to the "Sent” section of your Instagram channel. Find the post you’d like to share, then tap the three dots on the top right hand corner of the post. From there you can either post it immediately to Instagram or copy it back into your queue.

Screenshot of Buffer iOS mobile app post reminders in Sent tab

On web

On the web version of Buffer, go to the Sent tab, find the post you'd like to share and select Share Again.

Buffer Publishing Reminder Notification Share Again button


Adjusting posting default to “reminders only”

If you would prefer for all posts to be scheduled and sent as reminders, you can do that in the settings area of the mobile app.

  1. Tap the menu bar in the top left of your screen.
  2. Select your Instagram channel.
  3. Tap Settings in the bottom right of your screen.
  4. Under the "Instagram" area, toggle "Disable Direct Scheduling" ON.

To find this setting on web, select your Instagram channel, then choose Settings > General and make sure "Enable Reminder Notifications by default" is Enabled.

Enable Reminder Notifications by default toggled to Enabled

Resetting post reminder notifications

If reminder notifications are not coming through to your phone, please follow the steps below.

  1. Open the Buffer app on your mobile device and tap the menu bar in the top left of your screen.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the list of your channels and tap Signout.
  3. Log back into the Buffer app.
  4. Tap the Settings icon at the bottom right of your screen.
  5. Tap the Account Settings tab.
  6. Tap Push Notifications.
  7. Tap Reset Push Notifications or RESET.

GIF of resetting push reminders on mobile

Who receives the reminder when it’s time to post?

When it's time for one of your Instagram posts to be published (assuming it wasn't published automatically), we'll send a push notification to whichever mobile devices have been connected to your Buffer account. This includes both the account owner and any users who have been invited to the Instagram account with Full Posting Access. Learn more about user permissions here.

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