Updated 11/16/14

Instagram recently announced the ability to actually edit captions! From your post, scroll down to the end of the comments, and click on the three-dot button. Select "Edit" from the pop-up menu and edit your text as needed. Save the changes by clicking the check mark. Your comment is now updated!

You cannot edit comments left on others' posts or other comments on your posts. You can only edit the original caption.

Updated 5/13/14

I don't think it's any secret how much I advocate for the use of efficient comments in Instagram captions. But sometimes, after you hit send, you realize you made a typo or that you forgot to include something. There have a been a few times, on my own photos and on others' photos, that I wish I could edit what I wrote. Did you know that you can edit comments on Instagram?

It's not a commonly known fact. So if you didn't know, I'm going to show you how.

But first, I should clarify what I mean by "edit". You can't actually edit a comment once it's been posted. But you can delete it and rewrite/repost the comment.

Ok, so here's how you delete a comment on Instagram. (see updates below)

When you click on one of your posts in Instagram, it opens up the photo and all of the comments in a new screen. If you scroll to the bottom of the comments, there's the little comment button. Click on the button to open the comments page in another screen.

You'll notice in the top right corner, there is a little pencil icon. Click on that to open up the comments editor.

Now you'll see all of the comments with little red x's next to them. Click on the "x" next to the comment you want to delete. The "x" will change to a " - " and a red "Delete" button will appear on the right. Click on the red "Delete" button to remove the comment entirely.

Now you can go back to the comment screen and type your new comment and hit send to repost.

If there are any comments after your original caption, and you delete the original caption, your new comment will now drop down the list so that it is no longer the first one attached to the image. So, now when people look at your image, your description won't be there for them to see unless they scroll through the comments. Therefore, I don't recommend deleting your original comment after others have already started to leave comments.

As you can see from the image above, you can delete any comments on your own posts. So if someone leaves an inappropriate comment or shares a comment that you do not want represented on your images, you can feel free to delete them. However, as with any other social media site, I always advise this with caution. Don't delete negative or critical comments - engage in a discussion about the issue in a professional manner. And if you are going to delete a post, always advise the user that you are doing so and tell them why. You can mention them in a comment (use the @name of the user) and indicate that their comments are inappropriate and will be removed.

You can also go back and delete comments on other users' photos as well. Follow the same process as above to get into the comment editor. You'll see little hexagons with exclamation marks on the comments that you can't edit but your comment will have the little red "x" as mentioned above. You can delete and rewrite/repost your comment as needed.

UPDATED 5/13/14: A recent Android update, the pencil and red "x" buttons are gone. To delete a comment now, open the comments screen by clicking on the comment bubble. Tap and hold the comment to delete.  From the new screen, choose "Delete Comment".

UPDATED 1/2/2014: After a recent update, the process to delete comments on iOS devices has been changed. In order to delete a comment on an iOS device, click on the comment button beneath the post to open the comments. Swipe your finger to the right across the post you would like to delete to reveal a trash can icon. Click the trash can icon and confirm the delete. As stated above, you can delete comments you have made or any comments on any of your posts.

So, while you can't specifically edit comments on Instagram, you can delete comments for whatever reason and rewrite them. It's not a perfect system but it's better than no editing function, and does provide you with some additional control over the comments on your photos.

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