Instagram Stories Tips and Tricks

Instagram Stories is the place to share what you’re into or what you’re up to on the fly–whether you’re posting candid moments from a walk around your neighborhood, sharing what you’re currently listening to or shouting out a friend on their birthday. We are always working on new ways to inspire fun and creativity on Stories, so here are some tips, tricks and features we wanted to share with you.

Add Yours Sticker and Templates

We launched the Add Yours sticker in 2021, which lets anyone contribute to a public story thread that you create. With custom prompts and public responses, you can share the sticker and see who responds to it in their own Stories.

When you see “Add Yours” on another person’s story, tap the sticker to add your story to the responses. We’ve seen lots of fun ideas for “Add Yours” prompts, like #OOTD, pets being cute or the oldest pic on your camera roll.

With the launch of Add Yours templates, there’s even more ways to create and participate in new trends. Now, you can add GIFs, text or images to your story that will become a template for responses.

To create an Add Yours template, select “Add Yours Templates” from the sticker tray. You can create a custom template, or tap the dice for inspiration. Once you share to your story, anyone can use your template and add their spin to it. We love seeing Add Yours templates being used in creative ways, like “this or that” polls or maps of where you’ve visited.

Mention someone after you post a story

Forgot to tag someone in your story? No worries, we’ve all been there. You can still mention friends even after your story is up so that they can add it to their story. Just tap the three dots to “More,” then “Add Mention.”

Make a collage using Layout

Like peanut butter and jelly, some things are just better together. You can add multiple photos to the same story and create a collage using Layout.

Before taking a photo, tap the Layout icon. You can tap “Change grid” to change the layout of your photos. Then, you can take a series of photos with your camera or select pictures from your camera roll.

How to fill the background with a solid color

Did you know you can use the pen tool to fill the background with a solid color?

Here’s how:

• Take a photo
• Tap “Draw”
• Select a color
• Press and hold on the screen to fill

You can also add a translucent overlay to your story by following the same steps–just select the highlighter icon before pressing the screen to fill.

Pro-tip: When selecting a color, press and hold on the color options to bring up a gradient view of colors to choose from. You can also tap the eyedropper tool to choose a color directly from the photo in your story.

Turn live photos into a Boomerang

You can turn live photos into a Boomerang on your story with just one tap. First, choose a live photo from your camera roll–these will have the boomerang icon in the corner. Then, press and hold on the photo to turn it into a Boomerang.

Make emojis glow

Add a glowing effect to emojis on your story. Use the text tool to type out the emoji you want. Then, select the neon cursive font and toggle on background text color. Your emoji will now have a soft glow around it. You can also change the color of the glow using the color picker.

Share a story with Close Friends

Sometimes you want to share your story to only a few people. When you create a close friends list, you can choose to share your story with only the people on that list. Learn more about sharing a story with your Close Friends list on Instagram on the Help Center.