How to create and share your own Instagram Top 9 year in review
If you’ve spent any time on Instagram over the last week, you’ve likely seen a ‘top 9′ post from the friends and celebrities you follow. Essentially, this breaks down your top 9 posts in terms of likes and creates a sleek grid-like image that you can share to all of your followers.
Contrary to what some may think, top 9 isn’t a native Instagram feature, but rather one that third-party developers have jumpstarted. Here’s how to create yours.
How to create your own Instagram Top 9
As is usually the case when a social media trend goes “viral,” there are several different Instagram top 9 apps on the App Store. Each app varies in slightly different ways, but we’ve tried all of them here at 9to5Mac do you don’t have to.
You have your pick between three different apps that generate your Instagram Top 9, including “Top Nine,” “Best Nine,” and “Best 9.” In our testing, Top Nine from Beta Labs seems to be the most popular and easiest to use app.
In order to generate your Instagram Top 9 using “Top Nine” from Beta Labs, you first need to download the app from the App Store. From there, the app will ask you for your Instagram username. Enter it and select “continue.” Next, the app will ask you for your email address. If you have a dedicated ‘junk’ email address, I would suggest using that one here.
After you’ve entered your email address, the app will generate your Instagram top 9 grid. By default, there is a “Top Nine” watermark over your image, which can be removed in exchange for a $1.99 in-app purchase – but it looks just fine with the watermark in my opinion.
To save the grid image to your Photos app on iOS, you annoyingly have to tap the “Save Without Watermark” button, then choose the Save with watermark option from that menu. From there, you can upload your Instagram top 9 to Instagram like you would any other image.One final piece of advice we have is that after you generate your Instagram top 9, use Beta Labs’ “Forget Me” tool via this link. Beta Labs says using this tool will “delete all data associated” with your account.
It’s harder to recommend the other popular top 9 apps – “Best Nine” and “Best 9” – because they want access to your Instagram account. Top 9 is able to generate your grid without having you sign-in, which makes it the slightly more privacy-conscious option.