Instagram: How to change your username

Tired of your Instagram username? If you want to change your handle, you don’t have to create a new account: the social platform allows you to edit both your username and your display name. Here’s how you do it in the app and in a web browser.

Changing your account’s name on Instagram

There are some questions you might have before changing your Instagram name. This is what you need to know:

Your username is unique to you and is also part of your profile’s URL. It must be shorter than 30 characters and it can’t contain emojis, special characters etc. Only letters, numbers, underscores and periods are allowed. When someone visits your profile, this name is shown at the top of the page.
Your display name appears below your profile picture (app) or next to it (web browser). This is a name that anyone could use and it can contain special characters or emojis.
You can change both names at any time and as many times as you wish. The only restriction is that you can edit it only twice within 14 days.
You can’t have a username that is already being used by another account. When you want to change the name, Instagram will let you know if you can use the username you want or if it’s already taken.
If you want one of your older usernames back, you can use it again. But you won’t be able to do so if meanwhile someone else is using it. Or if it’s been recently removed from an active Instagram account that is not yours.
There is no way to hide your Instagram username. You can make your account private and allow only certain users to see what you post, but you can’t hide your username. If you don’t want people to find it, changing your username is probably the only way.