Instagram stories are temporary pieces of content that are deleted from your profile after 24 hours. However, there is a way to save them using Highlights. In this post we explain what highlights are and how you can add them to your profile.
What are Instagram highlights?
Highlights is an Instagram feature that allows you to group the stories you have previously shared and view them on your profile. You can find the section that stands out just below the biography section.
Also because stories usually revolve around less polished material compared to posts, you may still be proud of some of the stories you post and enjoy seeing them on your profile. This is where the highlights come in.
Also read:How to delete a single photo from a carousel or stories on Instagram
How to add highlights to your profile
Adding highlights to your profile is very easy, provided you have a library of previous stories to repeat. This involves activating the Stories Archive feature. The option is usually enabled by default in your mobile app, but you can check to make sure this is the case by following these steps.
- From your profile page, tap the burgers menu in the top right corner of the display.
- Select “Settings” from the menu below.
- Go to “Privacy”.
- Select “Story”.
- Scroll down until you find the “Save” section. The “Save story to archive” option must be enabled. Alternatively, you can choose to run “Save Story to Gallery”, but it is not necessary to start creating highlights.
Now that you’ve ensured that archiving is turned on, you can continue to create highlights.
Also read:How to add links to your Instagram stories
How to create a highlight
- Open your profile in the Instagram app.
- Below your profile details you should see the “Story Highlights” option. If you have not added them by now, you will need to click the down arrow to display the hidden menu.
- Tap “New” to add your first highlight group.
- Select the stories you want to group under Highlight, then click “Next.”
- In the next screen, you will need to type a name to describe this group of stories.
- You will also notice the “Edit Title” option, which will be the image that will be displayed in the highlight bubble displayed in your profile. You can use one of the stories you selected for this highlight group or upload another one from your camera.
- Click “Finish”.
The highlight has now been added to your profile. The full collection of stories will be visible as soon as you click on the specific bubble below your profile information.
It is worth noting that you can create Reels directly from your Highlights panel. After creating a highlight, click on the appropriate bubble that appears in your profile.
Tap “Create” at the bottom. You can shoot a new reel or use any older segment you saved in your camera shot, but the results will not be added to your highlights. Instead, they will be posted on your profile, as usual.
Also read:Use Instagram Collab to create a collaborative post or reel
How to add a current story to highlights
If you have a story currently running and would like to add it to a highlight group, you can do so without having to go back to your profile.
- Open the story you want to add to your highlights.
- Tap the “Highlights” button at the bottom.
- Select the group of highlights to which you would like to add the story. You can even create a new highlight from scratch from this menu.
that’s it! The story is added to the target group.
Also read:How to view Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more without an account
How to add more stories to highlights
Suppose you forgot to add some stories to one of your highlights, or you had a recent story that fits perfectly into one of your highlights categories. Do not worry, because you can easily add it to your profile.
- Tap the highlight to which you want to add more content.
- Tap the three dots in the lower right corner of the display.
- Select “Edit Markup”.
- Tap “Stories”.
- Select the stories you want to add.
- Tap “Finish”.
The new stories will be added to this specific highlight.
How to delete highlights from your profile
If you want to remove a highlight from your profile, that’s fine. You can do this very easily.
- Find the highlight you want to delete from your Instagram profile.
- Long press on it until a list of options appears below.
- Select “Delete Highlight” and the specific collection of stories will disappear from your profile.
- Alternatively, you can remove specific stories from the Highlight album. To do this, click on the highlight bubble and find the story you want to remove.
- Tap the three dots in the lower left corner.
- Click the “Remove from emphasis” option at the top.
- The story is removed from the group.
While you can not create new highlights from your computer or add any new stories to groups you create, you can delete individual stories from highlight.
All you have to do is click on the highlight, then select the three dots in the top left corner and select “Delete”.
How to customize highlight covers
Instagram Highlights is a great tool that lets you organize your content based on topics and categories, and then place it at the front of your profile. If you are a brand, the use of this feature can be even more essential, as it allows you to expand your interactions with your customer base. With that in mind, you can use the highlights to do a number of things:
- Share more information about your brand
- Share tips and tricks
- Promote transactions
- View customer testimonials and reviews
- Post questions and answers or surveys
By default, Instagram selects one of the photos included in the highlights to be the group cover image. However, if you want to go for a more sleek or artistic look, you need to know that you can find and download unique Highlight cover templates online. Below we have listed three tools that allow you to download such templates for free:
- Kanba – Canva is a site that provides you with a fairly large library of Highlight binding templates. You can even edit these designs if you find elements you do not like, or if you think you can improve them somehow. All you have to do to access this content is sign in with an account (Gmail / Facebook).
- VistaCreate – It’s different Website Offering access to many unique binding templates for Highlights. There is also an option to customize the works that are already available so you can add your own touch. You will need to sign in with an account again.
- Emphasize the creator of the covers – It Mobile app Offers easy access to a wide selection of templates, not just for Instagram highlights. Users can download them as they are or edit them quickly.
Need some inspiration?
If you do not know where to start when it comes to setting up your highlights, all you have to do is look around you for inspiration. There are countless accounts that do the highlights properly, and most of the time they seem to match their highlight covers to the overall feel and look of the profile. Here are some examples of profiles that have impressed us. As you can see, they range from simpler to more complex.
Common questions
1. How many highlights can you add to your Instagram profile?
Instagram has not imposed any limit, so in theory, you can add as many as you want. However, there is a limit to how many stories you can include in one highlight: 100.
2. Can I see who was watching by Highlights, just like Stories?
If you have a story that is currently running and have included it in the highlight, you can see who has watched it so far. After 24 hours, this information will no longer be available. When it comes to older highlights, you can not see who watched them.
3. Do your highlights disappear after 24 hours in a similar way to stories?
No, you can keep them as long as you want in your profile. If you want to get rid of them, you will have to delete them manually.
Now that you know how to keep Instagram stories longer, you may be more inclined to put more effort into creating your following stories. If this is the case, you should check out the list of the best apps for creating unique Instagram stories. In addition, knowing how to download stories and highlights on Instagram may be helpful as well.
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Alexandra is passionate about mobile technology and can often be found tampering with a smartphone from an obscure company. She began her career in technology journalism in 2013, after working for several years as a middle school teacher. Alexandra is constantly driven by curiosity, loves to know how things work and share this knowledge with everyone.