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February 9, 2023

How To Add Pronouns On Instagram – A Detailed Guide For Displaying Your Gender On Social Media

7 minute read

Recently, Instagram has introduced a new feature – adding the preferred pronouns, which can be seen by everyone visiting the profile. No matter what the purpose of your profile is, having pronouns on your profile has become necessary.

Whether you use the profile for business or communication with your friends, it’s almost expected of you to have your preferred pronouns in your bio.

But since bio is limited to 150 characters, pronouns can take enough space to prevent you from adding everything you want. So, how to add your pronouns on Instagram?

Continue scrolling to find out!

The New Feature on Instagram

Instagram added the feature to add your preferred pronouns a couple of months ago. Now, you can save up on bio space and use it for other things, rather than stating your pronouns in there.

Instagram allows users to add up to four pronouns to their profile – you can change them or remove them at any moment. If anything changes, you can change your pronouns – and, even better, choose who you show your pronouns.

If you have a public profile, you can share your pronouns with the world or limit the pronouns to being visible to your followers only. So, if you don’t want to share your gender identity with the world, just select people; it’s good to know you can.

Many countries now have access to adding pronouns – while initially, only a couple of countries, including the US, had access to the pronouns feature.

Adding pronouns to your profile is a relatively simple and quick process. We have put together a step-by-step guide for you to make it all easier.

How to Add Pronouns on Mobile

Lucky for you, just like most things on Instagram, the guide on how to add your pronouns on Instagram is relatively straightforward. It will take no more than two minutes of your time, provided you do know what pronouns you wish to add to your profile.

The first step would be to open the Instagram app and log in if you aren’t logged in yet. When you open the app, you will be taken to the home page, where you will tap on your profile picture in the bottom right corner.

Then, your profile will pop up. When it does, you should tap on the ‘Edit profile’ button, located right under your profile picture.

When you have opened the ‘Edit profile’ page, you will look for an empty bar for Pronouns. If you, however, only wish to change the pronouns you have already put in, you will tap on the same pronouns bar – except it won’t be empty.

On the next page, you will find a bar for pronouns, which allows you to put four pronouns that will appear on your profile later. You will start typing in the pronouns and choose from the drop-down selection of pronouns.

If your preferred pronouns aren’t there, make sure you didn’t put in a typo or continue reading for more.

When you’re done putting in the pronouns, you will need to save them by tapping the button in the upper right corner, and that’s it! Your preferred pronouns will appear momentarily on your profile!

How to Add Pronouns on Desktop

You can’t add pronouns on the desktop strictly – this feature is reserved for mobile apps. However, you can add your gender, which is – you have to admit, better than nothing if your phone is not with you at the moment.

This is pretty simple to do, and it only takes a minute or two to do it. So, the first thing you will do is open Instagram.com and log in if you’re not logged in already, and let it take you to the home page.

Then, you’ll click on your profile picture in the upper right corner.

When you click on your profile picture, a drop-down menu will appear, and you will click on Profile. Then, you will be taken to your profile page.

On the Profile page, you will click on Edit profile, which is located right from your profile picture in the middle of the page. You will be taken to settings, where you will scroll down until you see Gender, almost at the bottom of the page.

When you click on Gender, you will be faced with four options – Male, Female, Custom, and Prefer, not to say. If you choose Custom, you can add your preferred gender.

When you select your gender, you can click on Done below, which will save your gender. It will appear on your profile momentarily.

What Are the Pronoun Options on Instagram?

Instagram has done a great thing in adding pronouns. For now, there is a relatively wide selection of pronouns designed to accommodate most people worldwide.

The options for pronouns are:

  • co / cos
  • e / ey / em / eir
  • fae / faer
  • he / him / his
  • she / her / hers
  • mer / mers
  • ne / nir / nirs
  • nee / ner / ners
  • per / pers
  • they / them / theirs
  • thon / thons
  • ve / ver / vis
  • vi / vir
  • xe / xem / xyr
  • ze / zie / zir / hir

What If My Pronouns Are Not Available on Instagram?

Despite a relatively wide variety of pronouns, it can still happen that not all pronouns are available to accommodate absolutely everyone on the popular social media platform. If that happened to you – don’t worry yet; there is a solution.

Instagram recognized that they might miss some of the much-needed pronouns. So, if you have tried to add pronouns that simply aren’t there – it’s not the end of the world.

You must find the Learn More button underneath the ‘Add your pronouns’ bar.

Tap on that, and the app will open the Instagram Help Center. Scrolling down, you will find the option ‘If your pronouns don’t appear as an option, add them to your bio or let us know. Now, you’ll tap on the let us know if you want to let Instagram know.

Then, you can write a short message stating that your preferred pronouns are missing from the list, and Instagram will likely meet you halfway and allow you to use them. If that is too much of a hassle, you can always add your pronouns to your bio, and that’s it.

Why Should You Add Your Pronouns on Instagram?

Many people added their pronouns to their bio before the update came out. With the update, even more people are starting to add their pronouns, and you should too.

Adding your pronouns to your page promotes inclusivity of all gender identities. When cisgender people add their pronouns on their Instagram page or in their email signature, it normalizes the use of pronouns.

This small act makes the world a bit more inclusive for people who don’t identify as gender binary, such as transgender and nonbinary people. Physical appearance doesn’t have to do much with how one identifies – and pronouns help everyone in the Instagram community feel safe and respected.

For people who identify outside the gender binary, being misgendered feels disrespectful and alienated from the rest of the community, which is why pronouns are so important. Someone can appear more masculine or feminine, and it can have nothing to do with how they identify – and a small addition to their profile eliminates the possibility of misgendering them.

Why Can’t I Add My Pronouns?

Well, you might not be able to add your pronouns because you don’t have the latest version of the Instagram app.

On some phones, the updates go through automatically, but if they do not, you might have an outdated version of Instagram. Luckily, you can check that in a couple of seconds.

Check the App Store if you’re an iOS user or the Play Store if you’re keener on Android, and search for Instagram. If you see the words ‘update’ or ‘update available’, your app is not up-to-date.

Tap on the update and wait until the download and installation are finished. Then, open the Instagram app again and find the pronouns.

If all that fails, however, you should ensure that the pronouns feature is available in your country. If it is, contact Instagram support for more information.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, adding your pronouns on Instagram was a much-needed feature for all of us that like to fill our bio with other things relevant to our life. Whether your profile’s purpose is to build your social media influence or share selfies with your friends, you likely need to state your pronouns on your profile.

Nobody likes to be misgendered – and this feature made it less frequent in our daily lives. The best part is that it’s super simple to change your pronouns, even if you don’t use social media much, and our step-by-step guide can also help.

Unfortunately, you can only change your pronouns on your mobile app, but you can change your gender on your desktop – so that’s something. All in all, we are dying to see the updates on this feature!

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