Instagram Stories, by nature, only last for 24 hours, and after the time elapses, it disappears forever from the main feed, the user’s profile, and any direct messages they were shared in. Users may want the option to preserve their daily moments by sharing them as a post on their page where people can see them even after the day is over. They can also bypass the 24-hour limit by adding a story as an Instagram highlight.

Instagram is versatile and offers many ways to share or spice up the content. Posts shared for the Instagram feed can also be placed in a story to get more people—especially those who tend to use the platform mainly to check out stories—to look at them and engage with reactions. Any responses to Instagram posts shared as stories will appear in the direct message inbox unless the user taps on the post within the story to comment on it directly. Instagram Story reactions will remain in the conversation thread attached to a copy of the story only the user can view. To the outside world, the user’s Instagram Stories will be gone after a day of it being live unless they are saved as Story Highlights.

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Instagram users can add their stories to a Story Highlight in batches, even after disappearing from other people’s views. To do this, launch the Instagram mobile app and tap on the profile photo in the bottom-right corner of the screen to go to the user profile. Next, hit the + icon up top and select ‘Story highlight.’ Then, tap to choose a story or multiple stories to add to a highlight folder and hit ‘Next.’ Tap ‘Edit cover’ and select a story to use as the highlight folder’s cover image, then hit ‘Add’ or ‘Done’ to finalize. Users can add more Instagram Stories into a highlight folder any time by long-pressing on a highlight folder while on the user’s profile page, picking ‘Edit highlight,’ and hitting the check mark on stories to add and save before hitting ‘Done.’

Instagram Story Highlights, Explained


People can also add Instagram posts to highlights while reviewing their own stories. First, go to Instagram’s main feed and tap ‘Your story’ on the page’s top-left corner. When the user gets to a particular story they wish to save before it disappears, hit ‘Highlight’ (heart icon) on the bottom-right corner of the screen. When the ‘Add to highlights‘ menu shows up, tap on an existing highlight folder to add the story to it. To create a new highlight folder, hit ‘New’ (+ icon), put in a highlight folder name, then tap ‘Add.’

Adding Instagram Stories to highlights is an excellent way of creating a photo album of saved posts that users can go through at any time. Those who are allowed to see a user’s Instagram Stories can see the highlight folders they are included in on the user’s profile. An Instagram Story saved as a highlight will remain visible to people even after the original story has run its time limit unless the user decides to delete the story from the highlight or delete the highlight folder entirely. To delete an Instagram Story from a highlight folder, long-press on the highlight folder while on the user’s profile, hit ‘Edit highlight,’ uncheck the story to remove, then tap ‘Done.’ If it’s still within 24 hours of sharing it, users can also view the story through ‘Your story’ on the main Instagram page, hit ‘Highlight,’ then uncheck the highlight folder it is included in to remove it. To delete an entire Instagram highlight folder—remember that this action is permanent and cannot be undone—long-press on the highlight folder on the user’s profile, choose ‘Delete highlight,’ then confirm by tapping ‘Delete.’