If Your Instagram Account Is Hacked, Here's A Much Simpler Way To Recover It Now

Plenty of you have probably had yourselves locked out of your Instagram account. Or worse, perhaps even had it taken over by an attacker.

Earlier, you¡¯d have to jump through quite a few hoops to regain control, but not with Instagram¡¯s new system.

Previously, you'd have to contact Instagram's problematic customer support in order to wrest back control of your account. Now, there's a much easier method, as announced by the app recently. Here's what you do.

Open the Instagram app on your phone, and go to the login page. There, tap the 'Need more help' option. You need to enter your email address here and the phone number tied to the account. Instagram will then send you a unique six-digit code to both the email address and phone number. All you have to do is enter that code into the dialogue box and presto! You have control once more.

The company also told Motherboard that it's taken additional safety precautions. For one, the code sent to you can't be used on a different device. Additionally, they're also automatically putting a lockdown on your username for a period after any changes are made to the account, even if you've made them yourself. That way, someone taking over your account can't steal your username for themselves.

"We know that losing access to your account can be a distressing experience. We have measures in place to stop accounts from being hacked in the first place, as well as measures to help people recover their accounts," a spokesperson told the publication.