Instagram’s Stories are similar to Snapchat Stories. The Facebook-owned social media platform originally started as a place where photos were shared and shared among friends. Over the years, the platform has grown tremendously, with influencers, friends and businesses joining the many features that Instagram has to offer.
If you’re new to the platform or looking for specific information about Instagram’s Stories, don’t worry. We protected you. In this article, we’ll explain how Stories work, how to post, and more!
Instagram Stories Announced
You’ve probably noticed the small profile icons of your various Instagram friends at the top of your Instagram feed. This is where you’ll see stories posted by others, but view them quickly as they expire!
When you follow someone on Instagram, the stories they post will appear at the top of your Instagram feed.
Get alerted when you watch someone’s Story: They can see that your account viewed the story. By clicking the Story and Eye symbol at the bottom, the poster of the story can see the profile of each individual who clicks on their story. It won’t show you how many times you watched it, but they will know you did it at least once.
Instagram Stories are short 15-second video clips that are highly customizable and very similar to Snaps on Snapchat. Save your favorite content, add stickers and text, then post it directly to your Instagram feed. Unfortunately, these stories are not permanent. They only last around twenty-four hours unless you convert them to a Highlight, which we’ll talk more about below.
How to Create an Instagram Story
Stories allow you to post photos and videos on a whim as random events occur throughout the day. Here’s how to take advantage of the Stories mode on Instagram:
Tap the ‘+’ icon at the top
Tap the plus (+) symbol in the upper left corner of the Instagram app.
You will now be on the camera screen. You can use the front-facing or rear-facing camera on your mobile device.
Tap the white circular button at the bottom of your screen to take a photo and add it to your Instagram Stories.
Or, to save an Instagram video to add to your story, press and hold the same white circular button until you’ve captured a video to your liking.
Tap ‘Submit’ to choose your audience
You can choose to post to a group, to a person, or to post your story to your feed.
Tap ‘Send’
Customizing Your Stories
There are so many things you can do with your Instagram Story. Note that there is no option to change the content after you publish it, so make sure the content is perfect before posting.
add text
To add text to your Instagram Stories image or video:
Tap on “Aa” in the upper right corner of your mobile device’s screen. (Note: There is a filter attached to this image; we’ll get to that in a moment.)
Then add the text you want and position it accordingly.
If necessary, resize the text by pinching in or out with your fingers on the screen of your mobile device.
If you want to use colored text to write on your photo or video, tap the icon that looks like a line marker just to the left of “Aa” in the previous step.
You can use a regular tip marker, a wide tip marker or an iridescent marker. The color palette used to choose the color of your text is located at the bottom of your mobile device’s screen.
An indicator in the lower left corner of your screen allows you to adjust the size of your marker tip.
Changing Your Filters
By swiping right on your screen, you can change the filter settings on your image or video before posting it on your Instagram story.
Add Stickers to Your Story
Stickers are usually funny animated characters in your post that improve the quality of your message or make it more fun. Of course they can also make a statement! Click on the sticky note with dog ears at the top to add stickers to your story.
Add Filter
Filters can make you look younger, give you funny ears, and even add fireworks to your Story. To make your story even more fun and entertaining, tap the Emoji + icon at the top to scroll through your filter options while recording. Some can even change your voice!
Save Your Story to Your Phone
If you want to save your photo or video, tap the icon in the lower right corner (it looks like a down arrow in a horizontal line) to download it to your device.
Delete Your Story
Alternatively, while watching your own Instagram story, you will have the option to save the picture or video by tapping the three little dots in the lower right corner of your mobile screen. It also gives you the option to delete the photo or video, share it as a post, or go to your Stories settings.
We’d also like to point out that using Stories is a great opportunity to work on your best friend captions!
Instagram’s Highlights Stories
Highlights is a permanent Stories solution. Highlights will stay on your profile page until you delete them, instead of expiring after 24 hours. We have a lot more information on publishing and customizing Highlights here, but here’s a short tutorial to get you started.
Take your best content and showcase it for years by following the instructions below:
Publish Your Story
Go back to your story and tap ‘Highlight’
Follow the steps to choose and publish your cover. All ok! Your Story is now posted to your profile just below the ‘Edit Profile’ button.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to some questions about Instagram Stories here.
What is a boomerang?
Instagram gives users the option to make two versions of their Stories. You can choose a “Normal” format that plays like a video or “Boomerang”. Boomerang is a looping video somewhat similar to a GIF.
To create a Boomerang, tap Boomerang before recording. Capture your content, add your stickers and text, then publish as you normally would.
Is there a way I can keep my stories forever?
Apart from Instagram Highlights, you can also add your Stories to your Instagram Archives. Publish your story as you normally would, click the three dots and add the Story to your Archive folder.
You can access the content later from your Profile page by tapping the Settings icon and ‘Archive’.
