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Are your Instagram posts landing on Facebook? This is why

Meta’s trying to get more young people to use Facebook.

instagram logo with blurred phone background
Image: KnowTechie

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Ever posted something on Instagram just to find out that Meta also decided to cross-post your content to your Facebook profile?

As it turns out, that’s by design. Meta added the ability to cross-share posts and videos from Instagram to Facebook a while ago. Instagram will also allow you to share anything you post on your Facebook profile.

Whenever you make an Instagram post, including Stories or Reels, you’ll get a prompt to share on Facebook.

But if you don’t want to share on Facebook, you have to tap a link or toggle when finalizing the post. This can be easy to miss if you post a lot of content or aren’t paying attention.

instagram share to facebook screen
Depending on your settings and version, your Story share-to screen may look different (Image: KnowTechie)

Many users feel this is a sneaky tactic to try and boost young people’s Facebook usage. You can also cross-post from Facebook to Instagram, but that seems to be less of an issue.

Meta has been expressing concerns over young people’s Facebook usage in recent years.

Instagram has definitely become the more popular platform among young people, and Meta wants to bring Facebook back to its former glory.

share options
When sharing posts, the toggle is buried in the additional settings (Image: KnowTechie)

But this doesn’t seem to be the best way to bring users back. The New York Times spoke to a bunch of younger users about Instagram’s cross-platform sharing, and the majority were not in favor of the feature.

For most, it feels like this is a feature aiming to trick people into using Facebook more than they want to.

Cross-posting isn’t inherently bad, but Meta’s efforts to default users into posting on Facebook rubs people the wrong way.

Want to stop Instagram from sharing to Facebook by default? Here’s how

Now that you know why it’s happening, let’s put a stop to it. Here’s how to change your Facebook sharing settings on Instagram.

Tap the three-line menu in the top-right corner and head to Settings in Instagraminstagram settings button
Then, tap on Accountinstagram account menu
Scroll until you find Sharing to other apps – tap on itsharing menu
Select Facebook from the list of optionssharing to other apps menu
Here, select which types of posts you want to automatically share to Facebookinstagram share settings

There you have it. You’ve now somewhat thwarted Meta’s plan to get your Instagram posts on Facebook.

Have any thoughts on this? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Staff writer at KnowTechie. Alex has two years of experience covering all things technology, from video games to electric cars. He's a gamer at heart, with a passion for first-person shooters and expansive RPGs. Shoot him an email at alex@knowtechie.com

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