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The Market for Instagram Usernames
When you create an Instagram account and think of the perfect username that reflects your individuality or mission, you may discover that an inactive account already has it. It is important for companies and influencers to choose the right username for their Instagram accounts.
A user who abandons or doesn’t use an account for a long time is considered an inactive account. You can do several things if the profile has the username you want, but there’s no direct way to obtain it.
Can You Get an Inactive Instagram Username?
It can be challenging to claim an Instagram username. The process of claiming an inactive account’s username involves some rules and workarounds, even if another user quits logging in. There is no way for Instagram users to fill out a form and claim a username; it’s just not that easy.
Inactive Instagram accounts are purged by Instagram. However, you may not have the time to wait. In this article, we’ve covered all your options for obtaining an Instagram username.
Buying an Instagram Username
In the secondary market, good usernames can be sold for amounts ranging from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.
The people who make money selling names are generally those who staked out their accounts early and chose usernames that other people or businesses will eventually want.
When a movie, show, or album comes out, a name becomes valuable. Suddenly, ‘BigBangTheory’ is no longer just an excellent account for physics students, but also a highly sought-after one. You may be able to get the username if the profile becomes “inactive.”
Beware of buying an Instagram username from an unreliable source if you choose to do so. Hundreds of Instagram accounts were banned in 2021 for having stolen usernames. Usernames were stolen from innocent account owners and sold to unsuspecting users by hackers.
Finding Their Contact Information
If the account is inactive, that doesn’t mean the owner isn’t around. You might be able to purchase their old profile from them if they are willing to sell it to you. The tricky part may be getting in touch with them.
You can send a Direct Message directly from the Instagram platform. However, if the person isn’t active on Instagram, it’s likely that they won’t see your direct message for quite some time if at all.
You can find more information about the account by checking its bio. In this case, you need to look for a few things.
Some people include their e-mail address in their bio or even in the URL of their personal website. It’s likely that you’ve already succeeded in your quest if that’s the case.
Some people are more privacy-conscious and do not include such direct contact information. They may, however, include links or references to their other social media accounts, such as their Facebook pages or LinkedIn profiles. You can always message this person on different social media sites if you have their name.
Check out Instagram account market sites like InstaSale to see pricing for similar profiles if you don’t know how much to offer.
Will Instagram Delete Inactive Accounts?
It is true that inactive accounts will be deleted, although the amount of time it takes depends on the needs of the website.
As an example, purges usually happen at random, or at least they appear to. It is common for these purges to occur at the end of the year.
Wait for an Instagram Purge
If the account you want is genuinely inactive and doesn’t have much or any content, there is a very good chance it will eventually be removed from Instagram. Although there is no guarantee, the inactive account you want may get dropped, releasing the username.
Instagram does not announce the schedule for its purges, so you won’t know when to start grabbing usernames on your list. In order to detect a purge, follow one of the perennially popular Instagram accounts with a relatively stable follower count and check their follower count every day.
If they have thousands of followers, at least some of them are undoubtedly spam accounts or bots, and a purge will reduce their follower list by some considerable number. There is a good chance that Instagram did a purge if your monitored account goes from 9,341 followers to 9,102 followers overnight (and there is no apparent scandal driving the loss).
Trademark or Copyright the Name
Online patent applications are available. As soon as the patent is obtained, you can report the inactive account to Instagram. The option is open to you, even if it requires additional time and expense.
The process of transferring an Instagram account has been reported to be successful by many users. If you own a trademark on a name, you can claim that your customers’ existing accounts are confusing. Instagram usernames can be obtained through copyright infringement.
The owner of such a trademark or copyright can file a copyright/trademark violation report and claim ownership of the name.
It may be difficult to succeed with this method if the account is active and frequently used.
The process of getting a new trademark is complicated and expensive, but the process of obtaining copyright protection is fairly straightforward. The act of creating anything original grants you implicit copyright; you can file an official copyright registration to cement your claim, but the claim is made by referencing the work, not by filing the claim. Thus, you must use the name consistently and prove the damages it could cause if someone else uses it.
It is also possible to report a copyright issue directly to Instagram. Fill out this form on Instagram’s website by clicking this link.
Choose a Similar Name
It may seem obvious, but choosing a similar username is the easiest way to set up an Instagram account. It is easy and effective to add an underscore or a number.
Instagram usernames can be up to 30 characters long and can contain letters, numbers, periods, and underscores. In this specification, you have quite a bit of flexibility to create a name that is very close to the one you want. The rest should be straightforward, although you may need to use a little imagination.
If you run a business, add your city or location to your name. If you want to do the same with surnames or others, you can do so as well. You can use this move to maintain your brand and add a quick local identifier that may work in your favor. The name can also include the type of business.
Workarounds For Larger Brands
Adding ‘official’ or ‘real’ to the end of your Instagram account can also work if you’re a more established brand. You can do the same as artists with common names.
Emulating established brands, however, requires caution. Let’s say you create an account with Microsoft Software. When you reach a certain level of success and visibility, Microsoft will shut down your account promptly using the same trademark and copyright tools I described above. The same rules apply to infringement of other people’s intellectual property as to your own.
It’s possible that some usernames are set to private, if you’re having trouble obtaining one. This means that the username is unavailable, and you cannot search for the account if this is the case.
Created Account But Can’t log in
Many Instagram users have reported getting the “Sorry, Something Went Wrong” error message after creating a new account with the perfect username. Clicking the ‘Try Again’ option or logging in doesn’t work. Unfortunately, the username has already been taken, so you can’t log in. What should you do if this happens?
- If you need assistance, you can contact Instagram Support. We would appreciate if you could send us screenshots of the error message or username.
- If you are having trouble logging into your new Instagram account, try using a different application or web browser. It could be a simple application glitch.
- Try logging in with Facebook and see if your new account appears. It is possible that the new account will appear if you used the same login credentials.
- Try logging back into your Instagram account after a few hours.
When you create the perfect Instagram username and are unable to access the account, it can be extremely frustrating. If you follow the tips we’ve outlined, you may be able to regain access to your account.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section contains answers to more frequently asked questions.
After some time, yes. In spite of the fact that we don’t know the exact process, Instagram says that logging into your account is essential to avoid a purge. Profiles are not purged according to a timeframe given by the company.
To get assistance or answers about various things, you can visit Instagram’s help site. Visit the Instagram Help Center if you cannot access your account or if someone is accessing it illegally.
We have not received an official response from Instagram on this matter. However, many users have reported they were able to take the name once the original owner deleted their account. It is important to keep in mind that the account owner must permanently delete it. Prior to sending payment, make sure you have obtained the username from the other user.
As far as Instagram is concerned, requesting usernames is not exactly a green light. The company has the following to say about this:
If the username you want is being used by an inactive account, you can choose another available version. Adding periods, numbers, underscores, or abbreviations will help you create a username that isn’t already taken.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t try. Getting in touch with Instagram and requesting an inactive username won’t hurt.
Perhaps you tried a username that didn’t appear in your search results, but you can’t claim it. Even after trying several variations of the coveted username, you are left wanting.
In the event that the original creator of the username you’re looking for violated Instagram’s terms and conditions, Instagram could remove the entire account, including the username, in order to prevent its use in the future. Instagram won’t notify you if the username no longer exists, but you can check using the Help feature.