Uplet: The Easiest Way to Upload Images to Instagram from a Mac

Unless you’re using a mobile device, Instagram’s upload options are very limited. While many folks use the mobile app as their only method of posting to Instagram, artists such as yours truly, want a way to easily share our images directly from our desktop / laptop machines. Up until recently, I relied on Flume to upload image files directly from my Mac.

Sadly, Flume is now abandonware, having its last update in mid-July 2019.

Digging around for alternatives to Flume, I discovered Uplet, by Eltima Software.

Uplet lets you drag and drop images and add captions to them. Drag one image or queue up several at a time; Uplet handles both with ease. Below are some screen grabs showing Uplet in action. Drag a file into Uplet’s main window, add a caption, then click the Share button. That’s pretty much it!

You can also upload movie files (up to 60 seconds in length) via Uplet. Uplet also works well if you have more than one Instagram account that you want to post to from your Mac. You can easily switch between your IG accounts as needed. If you have a non-square image, Uplet will also let you edit and crop the image as needed, so it looks exactly like you want it to before you hit the “Share” button.

Make no mistake: Uplet is not a Flume replacement. To be fair, it never billed itself as such. Still, Flume offers other features that I wish Uplet had, such as viewing one’s Instagram stream in real time, Carousel uploads (where multiple images can reside within one post), and viewing all of your posts to date. That’s a moot point now, of course, since Flume is broken and no longer supported. But it would be neat to see Eltima Software integrate all of these features in a future version of Uplet. I believe that the market is ripe for a true desktop Instagram client. I also believe Mac users would flock to Uplet in droves if it had these extra features.

Uplet retails for $19.95, which is steep for being a one-trick pony. Cross-grade discounts are available if you’re moving from Flume to Uplet (you can save 50% on the retail price), so that eases the sting a bit. In the end, if you rely on posting images and movie clips to Instagram from your Mac, Uplet does exactly what it says it will do. Unlike Flume, Uplet is actively supported and receives regular updates from Eltima Software. Their customer and tech support is both fast and responsive. Whether Uplet is worth $19.95 really depends on how much you need to post files from your Mac. Personally, I think a price of $12 would be more reasonable. However, if you’ve already paid for Flume and seek a workable solution to upload your images and movies from your Mac, Uplet’s $10 price (after the migration discount) is more than fair.

-Krishna