INSTAGRAM STORIES

Share your everyday moments

Capture what you’re up to with ease

Stories allow you to capture the everyday, highlight the special moments, or express yourself with text, music, interactive stickers, filters, and GIFs to bring your stories to life.

Spark connections

Share some love with friends by liking their story, or catch up with them directly by replying to their story with a DM.

Join in with friends

Share a moment with friends by using the Add Yours, Polls, or Question sticker to get input.

Highlight your favorite moments on profile

Share your Stories for more than 24 hours by posting them as Highlights on your Profile.

Stories allow you to share everyday moments and grow closer to the people and interests you care about through photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. You can choose to share your Stories with all your followers or your Close Friends list, and also add them to your profile as story highlights.

Need help with something specific on Instagram?

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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To share a photo or video to your story:

Note that when you share a video up to 60 seconds long to your stories, it will appear as one clip. Longer videos will be broken up into multiple clips and can be edited using the video trimmer at the bottom. The video trimmer is currently only available on iOS devices.

Stories disappear from your profile, Feed and Direct inbox after 24 hours, unless you add them to your profile as story highlights.

To look at who's seen your story, open your story and swipe up on the screen. You'll see the number and the Instagram usernames of the people who have viewed each photo or video in your story. If you shared your story to Facebook, scroll down see who saw your story on Facebook.

Only you are able to look at who's seen your story.

What if it's been more than 24 hours after I posted my story?

You can look at who's seen your story up to 48 hours after you post it.

Note that the number of story views includes all the replays of your story. You may see a higher number of views than usernames if the same account has viewed your story more than once.

You can only share someone’s post from Feed to your story if their account is public and they’ve allowed resharing of their posts. Sharing posts from Feed to Stories isn’t available to everyone.

To share someone’s post from Feed to your story:
Instagram app for Android and iPhone
  1. Tap below the photo or video in Feed.

  2. Tap Add post/video/reel to your story.

  3. Tap Story arrow to confirm story before sharing in the bottom right.

  4. Tap Share.

Instagram Lite app for Android
  1. Tap below the photo or video in Feed.

  2. Tap Add post/video to your story.

  3. Tap Add to Story.

Keep in mind that when you share someone’s post to your story, anyone who views it can see who originally posted it and can view the original account. Learn how to share a shop to your Instagram Stories.

If you have a public account, you can turn off the ability for others to re-share your posts.

To stop allowing others to re-share your posts:
Instagram app for Android and iPhone
  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right.

  3. Tap Privacy, then tap Story.

  4. Tap switch on next to Allow sharing to story.

Instagram Lite app for Android
  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right.

  3. Tap Privacy, then tap Story.

  4. Tap switch on next to Allow Resharing To Stories.

To share your story to Facebook, first you’ll need to add your Facebook and Instagram accounts to the same Accounts Center. At this time, you can only share a story to Facebook from the Instagram app for Android or iPhone.
Share your story to Facebook

To share your story to Facebook:

  1. Start creating a story, then tap Story arrow to confirm story before sharing.

  2. Below Your Story, tap Sharing options.

  3. Select Share to Facebook every time or Share Once.

  4. Tap Share.

Share all future stories to Facebook automatically

You can also adjust your settings to allow all future stories to be shared to Facebook automatically:

  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right.

  3. Tap Privacy, then tap Story.

  4. Scroll down to Sharing, then tap switch off next to Share your story to Facebook.

What happens when I share my story to Facebook?

Note that when you share your Instagram story to Facebook, it will appear as a story at the top of News Feed. Your existing Facebook story audience will see your Instagram story.

If someone views your story from Facebook, you can see their Facebook name and profile picture when you check who’s seen your story.

Learn how to delete an Instagram story you shared to Facebook.

Before you share a photo or video to your story, you can tap at the top of the screen to save it to your phone.

You can also save a photo or video you’ve already shared:

Instagram app for Android
  1. Open your story.

  2. Tap more options in the bottom right of the photo or video you’d like to save.

  3. Tap Save Photo/Video.

Instagram app for iPhone
  1. Open your story.

  2. Tap in the bottom right of the photo or video you’d like to save.

  3. Tap Save....

  4. Tap Save Photo/Video to save the individual photo or video or tap Save Story to save everything from your story as a single video.

Instagram Lite app
  1. Open your story.

  2. Tap in the bottom right of the photo or video you’d like to save.

  3. Tap Save to Gallery.

Add a story to an existing highlight

You can add stories to appear on your profile as highlights, even after they disappear. Highlights appear below your profile photo.

  1. Click your profile picture on the left to go to your profile.

  2. Click the highlight you want to add to, then click more actions in the top right.

  3. If you want to update the name of your highlight, enter it in the text box. Click Next.

  4. Click Stories next to Selected and select the story or stories you want to add to your highlight.

  5. Click Next in the bottom then click Done.

Create a new highligh

You can add stories to appear on your profile as highlights, even after they disappear. Highlights appear below your profile photo.

To add story highlights, log into the Instagram app for Android or iPhone and then follow the instructions below.

To add a story to a highlight:

  1. Click your profile picture on the left to go to your profile.

  2. Click New. If you don't see New, click Story highlight.

  3. Enter a highlight name for your highlight, then click Next.

  4. Click to select the story or stories you want to add to highlights, then click Next.

  5. Choose a cover photo and click Done.

You can edit your highlight at any time by clicking on the highlight, clicking more actions in the top right, then clicking Edit.

Note: Stories you add as highlights remain visible as highlights until you remove them, even after the original story has disappeared. Keep in mind that those you've allowed to see your story can also see your highlights.

By default, anyone who can see your story can reply to it directly with a message. When you prevent someone from replying, they won’t see that option from within your story.

To control who’s able to reply to your story:

Instagram app for Android and iPhone
  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right.

  3. Below How others can interact with you, tap Messages and story replies.

  4. Tap Story replies, then select who can reply to your stories.

Instagram Lite app
  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right, then tap settingsSettings.

  3. Tap Privacy, then tap Story.

  4. Select who can reply to your stories.

Keep in mind that your story disappears from Feed, your profile and Direct after 24 hours unless you add it as a highlight. After that, photos and videos from a person’s story will no longer be visible in conversations. Any text that was included with a message will still be visible after the photo or video disappears.

You can also hide your story from people.

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