Save Instagram view-once photos, videos and DMs on your Mac

Linger is a Mac app for your Instagram direct messages. It shows your inbox on your computer and lets you save the photos, videos and voice messages in your chats, including view-once and disappearing photos and videos while they’re still available. You can also reply, schedule messages, search your message history, and browse and save stories, highlights, posts and reels.

Instagram itself doesn’t offer a way to save view-once photos and videos. Linger shows them in your inbox on your Mac with a View and a Save button while they’re still available, and auto-save can keep them as soon as they arrive while Linger is running.

Once a view-once photo has been opened and has expired, it’s gone for everyone, Linger included. If you’re on your phone, don’t open it there first: install Linger on your Mac and open it from Linger.

Yes. Open the chat’s media panel and save everything in one go, or pick single items. Linger saves photos, videos, voice messages, shared posts and reels, and every photo of a carousel. Files go to a folder in Downloads, which you can change in Settings.

You can also export a chat’s full history as a backup you can read in any browser.

Linger runs on macOS 12 Monterey or later, on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 and newer). Intel Macs aren’t supported yet. A Windows version is planned. There’s no iPhone or Android app.

Linger is free for 14 days from the first time you open it, with no account, email or card. After that it’s €4.99 a month, with everything included. Cancel anytime. One license works on one computer.

You can buy a license in the app or here. After paying, your license key is shown on screen; paste it into Linger.

In Linger, go to Settings → License → Manage subscription, or open the subscription page and sign in with the email you subscribed with. From there you can cancel, change your card or download invoices.

You log in on your Mac, directly with Instagram. Linger has no servers and no account of its own, so your login never reaches us. Your password is never stored: Linger keeps only the session, encrypted with a key held in your Mac’s keychain. Your messages and media stay on your computer, and we never see them.

Linger isn’t made or approved by Instagram. It uses Instagram’s private interface, not an official API, and that goes against Instagram’s terms of use. Instagram may ask you to verify your account, or restrict or block it. Linger paces its requests and slows down when Instagram asks it to, but that can’t rule out a restriction. Use it at your own risk.

Auto-save works while Linger is running. Closing the window keeps Linger running in the menu bar, so new photos and videos, including disappearing ones, keep being saved. If your Mac is off or asleep, nothing can be saved until it’s back on.

Linger is for keeping what’s been sent to you: memories, conversations, files you want to back up. Respect other people’s privacy. Sharing someone’s photos or videos without their consent can hurt them, and in many countries it’s illegal.