Artists and professional photographers may balk at zooming in on a picture because it was precisely framed as a piece of art, shot at an exact distance and angle under specific lighting.
But for the rest of us common folk who use Instagram to stalk (or if you prefer, investigate) the lives of our friends, enemies and exes, how many times have we wished we could better scrutinise an Instagram picture with a zoom-in function?
This may sound too good to be true (and it is), but the function has been sitting in your smartphone the entire time. Thanks to tech geeks who explore the settings of the iPhone because the rest of us are too classy to do so, a quick tinkering will change the way you use Instagram.
How to do it
Open the Settings on your iPhone, then navigate to General, followed by Accessibility then the Zoom tab.
Try to suppress your mischief for a second, then go into Instagram and double-tap with three fingers. Keep your fingers down, and slide up and down to adjust the zoom. To exit the zoom at any time, do a three-finger double-tap.
Move around the picture the same way you would usually, except with three fingers. You can choose to make use of a full screen zoom or just a zoom on a windowed portion of the screen under the Zoom Region tab.
But what if I accidentally Like my ex-girlfriend’s picture, right?
Fear not, for it is practically impossible to do so. Instagram only registers a Like if it was double-tapped with one finger. No matter how you double-tap, be it with two, three, four or five fingers, Kevin Systrom understands that your Likes are precious and has safeguarded you from giving out too many of them.
Technically, the zoom-in function is system-wide and will work not only on Instagram, but no matter what app you’re in. So if you ever find your screen accidentally magnified, simply do a three-finger double tap to get out.
Caution to Instagram users who think they’re safe from scrutiny and inspection because they’re standing far-off in the shot. You never were.
