How to Add Highlights on Instagram

Instagram stories are short photo and video posts that appear in a full-screen, slideshow format for up to 24 hours in the stories feed. If you want to keep a story visible for longer than that 24-period, add it as Instagram story Highlights to your profile until you decide to remove it.

What Are Highlights on Instagram?

Highlights are stories you pin to the top of your Instagram profile for an indefinite period of time. Any story you post appears in your followers' feeds for 24 hours, then automatically disappears. However, if you add a story to your Highlights, anyone who visits your profile sees it as a circular icon above your main feed, even after it disappears from their main stories feed.

Highlights don't have to contain only one story and can be a collection of stories. You can add up to 100 photo or video stories to a single Highlight. There's also no limit to the number of Highlights you can add to your profile.

Until you manually remove a Highlight from your profile, it remains there indefinitely. Just like regular stories, you can see who viewed your Highlights.

Why Use Instagram Highlights?

Highlights are ideal for content you want to keep around longer than 24 hours but doesn't fit the constraints of standard photo and video posts (such as the need to crop them). They're also ideal for casual content situations where you're not looking to attract likes and comments.

Stories that capture memorable moments or mean something to you are perfect Highlights for your profile. Anyone who visits your profile sees your Highlights and can tap them to catch a glimpse of your favorite stories.

There are two main ways you can create a Highlight:

• From your profile by accessing your story archive.
• From your existing live stories (within 24 hours of it being posted).

How to Post an Instagram Highlight From Your Profile

You can post a Highlight from your Instagram profile. Once posted, the Highlight appears on your profile.

1. On the Instagram app, tap the profile icon in the bottom menu.

2. Tap the Story Highlights label above your grid of posts.

3. Tap the plus sign (+) labeled as New.

4. A grid of your recently archived stories appears (along with the dates when they were posted). Tap the circle at the bottom of one or multiple stories to add a checkmark to those you want to include in a single Highlight.

   If you don't see your previously posted stories, enable story archiving. To do this, tap the menu icon in the upper-right corner of your profile, then tap Settings > Privacy > Story. Under Saving, make sure Save to Archive is turned on, so it appears blue.

5. Tap Next after selecting the stories you want to add to a single Highlight.

   Optionally, to customize your cover image, tap Edit Cover and name your Highlight by typing something into the field below the cover. If you don't rename it, its name appears as "Highlights" by default.

6. Tap Add in the upper-right corner. It appears on your profile.

How to Post an Instagram Highlight From Your Stories

You can add a story to your Highlights as you post a new story. This takes the extra step out of Highlighting the story after it's been posted.

1. To compose a new story, tap Your Story in the stories feed on the home tab, tap your profile photo on your profile, or swipe right from the home tab.

2. Tap the white button at the bottom to capture your story or the photo/video preview thumbnail in the lower-left corner to upload an existing photo or video.

3. On the preview of your story, tap the Highlight button in the lower-right corner.

4. Enter an optional name for your Highlight, then tap Add.

5. Tap View on Profile to see it on your profile, or tap Done.

How to Edit or Remove an Instagram Highlight

Editing your story allows you to change the cover photo to a custom one and add more stories as needed. Since Highlights remain on your profile indefinitely, remove them when they're no longer relevant.

1. To edit an existing Highlight on your profile, tap the Highlight to view it, then tap the three dots labeled More in the lower-right corner.

2. Tap Edit Highlight.

3. Tap Edit Cover to select a new image from your device as a cover image, rename the Highlight in the Name field, and tap Archive to add more stories from your archive.

4. Tap Done to update your Highlight.

5. When you're ready to remove the Highlight from your profile, tap the Highlight to view it, then tap the three dots labeled More in the lower-right corner.

6. Tap Remove from Highlight.

7. Tap Remove again to confirm it.