How to Share Photos With Micro.blog — Free Instagram Alternative

Micro.blog offers something pretty cool: a safe space to share that you can truly call your own. Created in reaction to pesky features of today’s social media sites (we’re looking at you Instagram & Twitter), Micro.blog is a blog-hosting platform with a social media-style timeline that’s ad-free and algorithm-free. It’s also built on RSS and a network of independent microblogs and backed by strong, enforced community guidelines, meaning you stay in possession of your content, and in control of your content, and your interactions are shielded from people looking to harass and troll. Sounds pretty great, right? Read on to learn how easy it is to post and share all kinds of content on this one-of-a-kind platform.

But first, a bit more about Micro.blog. Designed to work with the open web, rather than being yet another social network, the platform is a lot like owning your own website. In fact, Micro.blog encourages users to publish at their own domain name, where they control their own content and upload it to the platform. There, users see an integration of posts into a familiar timeline-interface with centralized replies, bookmarks, and other intuitive features. You can share photos, as well as short- or full-length text-based posts, podcasts, video, and more, follow other users, and engage in conversations.

Sound interesting? Here’s more:

Posts can be any number of words. Longer posts will surface as a linked title.
You can style your text or add links or quotes.
You can blog at your own domain name.
The Micro.blog template is customizable.
It is not run by an algorithm.
It is ad-free.
The Micro.blog team curates collections of the latest interesting posts that you can search.
You can create multiple microblogs for different topics or businesses.
It is free of charge for a basic account.

Prioritizing a safe community of microblogs, the platform was designed expressly to prevent abuse and harassment and has several features with that aim in mind:

It doesn’t support hashtags in order to deter bad actors from finding people to harass.
To “like” a post, you have to reply to the author. The idea is replying is more meaningful than simply “liking” a post and facilitates conversations between users.
It doesn’t show how many followers you have, so you don’t accidentally judge someone based on that frivolity.

Some drawbacks:

Without hashtags or a similar alternative, it can be difficult to find people and subjects of interest, however using emoji from this set of micro.blog “tagmoji” will add your post to a number of pre-set categories in the Discover feature. The photos feed is curated.
Some of the coolest features require a subscription. Plans range from $5, $10, to $20 a month.

How to Share Images on Micro.blog

You can check out Micro.blog for free by signing up for a 10-day trial. Once you do so, follow these simple steps:

1. Click on New Post

2. Click on the Camera Icon

3. Choose a Photo to Upload

A preview of it will appear below the blank rectangle.

4. Add a Caption

Place your cursor in the blank rectangle and enter text for your caption.

5. Post it

Click on Post under the blank rectangle.

You will receive a notification that your post is being published.

6. View Your Post

Click on Timeline. You will see your picture at the top and whatever else you have posted from the past below it.

7. Checkout Your Microblog!

To view your post on your microblog, click on your handle in the blue rectangle.

Then click on your blog link to access your microblog.

And check it out! Your nice, cleanly designed microblog! You can also customize it, by the way.

8. Return to Micro.blog

Click on the link under your name.

Doing so will return you to your profile on the micro.blog website.

9. Check Out Other Posts

To view other people’s posts, click on Discover.

You will see recent posts from the community.

You can also browse by the type of post. Click on the post icons and select from the options in the dropdown menu.

Experiment With Instagram Alternatives

We may feel wedded to Instagram and other social media giants, but in truth we aren’t. If your current social media platforms are problematic, experiment with the alternatives. There are quite a few to choose from, and they’re all looking to offer you a different, improved way to interact with others on the internet.

Where we invest our time and content and how we interact with other people’s content are important considerations. There’s no reason to throw up your hands and suffer the consequences of various social media platforms. Micro.blog was created explicitly to allow you to post what you want, how you want, into a feed that is a designated safe space highly vetted to combat trolling and negative, unproductive comments. Sweet relief.

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About the Authors

Duncan Clark wrote this. Jackson Couse edited and published it.

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Have you tried Micro.blog? Tell us about your experience on Envato Forums. It’s always good to hear from you and find out what you’ve been up to!