How to Add Pictures to a Highlight on Instagram

Instagram Highlights are your brand’s digital front porch - a curated, always-on collection of your best Stories that shows new visitors exactly who you are and what you offer. But knowing how to effectively add photos to them, especially pictures from your camera roll or old content from months ago, can feel less than straightforward. This guide breaks down every method, from the absolute basics to the tricks the pros use, so you can build beautiful, strategic Highlights that captivate your audience.

First Things First: Understanding the Golden Rule of Highlights

Before we get into the step-by-step methods, there's one fundamental rule you need to know: a picture or video must be published as an Instagram Story before it can be added to a Highlight. You can't upload a photo directly from your camera roll to a Highlight. It must make a stop in your Stories first, even if it's just for a few seconds. Instagram designed Highlights to be collections of your best ephemeral content. Once you understand this rule, the rest of the process makes perfect sense.

Fortunately, as you'll see in our final method, there's a clever workaround to add a picture to a Highlight without your entire audience seeing it in your live Story feed.

Method 1: Adding a Live Story to a Highlight

This is the most common and direct way to build your Highlights. When you post a Story that’s just too good to disappear after 24 hours, you can immediately save it to a Highlight directly from the Story viewer. This is perfect for time-sensitive announcements, behind-the-scenes moments, or user-generated content you want to feature right away.

How to Add a Live Story to a New Highlight:

• Step 1: After publishing your Story, tap on your profile picture to view it.
• Step 2: In the bottom-right corner of the screen, you'll see an icon that says "Highlight" with a heart inside a circle. Tap on it.
• Step 3: A menu will appear showing your existing Highlights. To create a new one, tap the "New" button with the plus (+) icon.
• Step 4: You'll be prompted to give your new Highlight a name. Keep it short, clear, and descriptive (e.g., "FAQs," "About Us," "Reviews," "New Drops").
• Step 5: Tap "Add." Your new Highlight will instantly appear on your profile, featuring the photo you just added.

How to Add a Live Story to an Existing Highlight:

• Step 1: View your active Story.
• Step 2: Tap the "Highlight" icon at the bottom.
• Step 3: Instead of tapping "New," simply tap on the name of the existing Highlight you want to add the photo to. For example, if you posted a customer review, you'd tap your "Reviews" Highlight.
• Step 4: Instagram will show a small confirmation that it's been "Added." That's it! The photo is now part of that collection on your profile.

Method 2: Adding Old Photos Using Your Story Archive

What if you want to create a Highlight with photos you posted to your Story weeks, months, or even years ago? This is where your Story Archive comes in. It’s a powerful feature that automatically saves all your Stories after they expire, creating a private library of content you can pull from at any time. This method is the secret to building strategic, thematic Highlights like a portfolio, team introductions, or a showcase of your best products from the past year.

Here's how to access your archive to build your highlights:

• Step 1: Go to Your Profile. Navigate to your main Instagram profile page.
• Step 2: Start a New Highlight or Edit an Existing One.
  • To create a new Highlight from scratch, tap the plus (+) icon labeled "New" located underneath your bio.
  • To add photos to an existing Highlight, press and hold your finger on that Highlight, then select "Edit Highlight."
• Step 3: Access Your Archived Stories. A new screen will appear. If you're editing, tap on the "Stories" tab. This is your personal library of every Story you've ever posted. They are organized chronologically, with the most recent appearing first.
• Step 4: Select Your Photos. Scroll through your archive and tap the circle in the corner of each photo or video you want to include in this Highlight. A blue checkmark will appear on the ones you've selected. You can add up to 100 clips in a single Highlight.
• Step 5: Finalize Your Highlight. Once you've selected all your desired content, tap "Done" in the top-right corner. You'll then be prompted to name your Highlight (if it's a new one) and edit the cover photo. Tap "Done" or "Add" one last time, and your curated Highlight will now be live on your profile.

Method 3: The "Secret" Way to Add a Photo to a Highlight Without Posting it Publicly

Sometimes you have the perfect photo - like a branded graphic for a new "Services" Highlight - that you want to add directly without it feeling out of place in your day-to-day Stories. Posting a random menu graphic in the middle of a takeover can disrupt your flow. Luckily, there’s a smart workaround using the "Close Friends" feature.

The strategy is simple: you'll post the story to a very limited audience (or no one at all), quickly add it to your Highlight, and then delete the story. Because it's saved in your archive, it will remain in the Highlight permanently.

Here’s how to do it, step-by-step:

1. Set Up Your "Close Friends" List (Temporarily). Go to your profile, tap the three lines in the top right, and select "Close Friends." If you use this feature regularly, you can simply remove everyone from the list for a moment. If you don't, even better. The goal is to post the Story to an empty list or a list with only your own burner account on it. No one will get a notification, and it won’t appear in anyone’s feed.
2. Create and Post Your Story to "Close Friends" Only. Create your Story as you normally would. When you're ready to share, tap the "Close Friends" button at the bottom instead of the "Your Story" button. Your story will post, but only those on your (now empty) list can see it.
3. Immediately Add it to a Highlight. Your story is now live (but hidden). Tap your profile picture to view it - it will have a green ring around it, indicating a Close Friends story. While viewing your story, tap the "Highlight" icon at the bottom and add the photo to a new or existing Highlight, just like in Method 1.
4. Delete the Story (Optional but Recommended). After it's safely in your Highlight, tap the "More" button (three dots) in the bottom right corner of your story and select "Delete." The Story will vanish from your public feed but will remain in your Highlight because it's been saved to your archive.

Voila! You've successfully added a photo from your camera roll to a Highlight without broadcasting it to the world first.

Make it Beautiful: Creating Custom Highlight Covers

The final touch for a professional-looking profile is a set of on-brand Highlight covers. These are the small, circular thumbnail images that viewers first see. Relying on auto-generated thumbnails from your Stories can look messy and unfocused. Creating custom covers pulls your entire profile aesthetic together.

How to Upload a Custom Highlight Cover:

One of the best-kept secrets on Instagram is that you do not have to post a cover image to your Story to use it as a cover. You can upload it directly from your camera roll.

• Step 1: Design your covers. You can use a tool like Canva to create simple icons or graphics that match your brand's colors and fonts. The ideal dimension is 1080 x 1920 pixels, but make sure your main design is centered, as Instagram will crop it into a circle. Save these images to your phone's camera roll.
• Step 2: Go to your profile and press and hold on the Highlight you want to update.
• Step 3: Select "Edit Highlight."
• Step 4: At the very top of the editing screen, tap "Edit Cover."
• Step 5: The "Edit Cover" screen will show thumbnails from the stories in your highlight. To the far left of these, tap the gallery icon. This will open your phone’s camera roll.
• Step 6: Select your custom cover image from your camera roll. Adjust the position and zoom so it fits perfectly in the circle frame.
• Step 7: Tap "Done." You've now got a clean, professional Highlight cover that elevates your entire profile. Repeat for all your Highlights to create a cohesive look.

Final Thoughts

Mastering Instagram Highlights is about transforming your profile from a collection of memories into a strategic resource for your audience. By using active Stories, digging into your archive, trying the Close Friends workaround, and creating custom covers, you have all the tools you need to build a compelling and professional-looking bio that converts visitors into followers.

Keeping content organized, like planning out what stories you want to feature in Highlights, is a core part of building a consistent brand message. Here at Postbase, we designed our visual calendar and scheduling tools to give you a clear view of your entire content strategy at once. With our platform, you can seamlessly plan the stories, posts, and reels that will become the backbone of your profile long before you hit publish. By using Postbase, you can ensure your big-picture strategy translates directly to your profile, a place where it's showcased in beautifully organized Highlights.