How to Answer Prompts on Instagram

Jumping into an Instagram Add Yours thread or answering a Q&,A sticker is one of the easiest and most effective ways to boost your engagement and connect with your audience. This guide provides a complete walkthrough on how to answer prompts on Instagram, from the basic steps to advanced strategies that help you build your brand and spark new content ideas. We’ll show you exactly how to participate, what to say, and how to use these simple features to get real results.

What Exactly Are Instagram Prompts and Why Should You Care?

On Instagram, "prompts" are interactive features, mostly used in Stories and Reels, designed to get a direct response from your followers. They are a call-to-action that invites participation, turning passive viewers into active members of your community. While you may just think of them as fun stickers, they are powerful tools for growth and engagement.

The most common types of prompts include:

• "Add Yours" Stickers in Stories: These create collaborative threads where users add their own photos or videos in response to a prompt, like "Show me your current view" or "Pet appreciation post." Each new Story links back to the original chain, creating a viral loop of content.
• Q&,A Stickers in Stories: These allow you to ask for questions from your audience ("Ask me anything") or pose a question for them to answer ("What's your biggest marketing struggle?").
• Poll &, Quiz Stickers in Stories: Simple ways to get quick feedback or test your audience's knowledge with a multiple-choice question.
• Emoji Slider Stickers in Stories: A fun, visual way to gauge sentiment on a topic (e.g., placing a fire emoji on a slider to ask "How good is this new feature?").
• Reels Prompts &, Templates: Similar to "Add Yours," these invite you to create a Reel using a specific audio clip or format, making it easy to hop on trends.

Participating in these prompts does more than just fill your content calendar. It signals to the Instagram algorithm that you're an active user, helps you build real connections with other accounts, and provides a continuous stream of user-generated content (UGC) and inspiration.

Responding to "Add Yours" Prompts in Stories: The Complete Guide

The "Add Yours" sticker is a game-changer for community building. Participating is simple and gets your profile in front of everyone who views that collaborative Story chain. Here's a clear, step-by-step process to follow.

How to Answer an "Add Yours" Prompt:

1. Find a Prompt You Like: As you tap through your friends' or favorite creators' Stories, look for the "Add Yours" sticker. You'll see the prompt text (e.g., "A photo from your camera roll that feels like a movie") and small profile icons of others who have participated.
2. Tap the "Add Yours" Button: Directly on the sticker, there's a blue button labeled "Add Yours." Tap it.
3. Choose Your Media: Tapping the button opens your Instagram Story camera. You have two options:
   • Take a new photo or video right then and there.
   • Tap the gallery icon in the bottom-left corner to choose an existing photo or video from your camera roll. This is the most common option.
4. Style Your Story: Once you've selected your photo or video, Instagram automatically places the original "Add Yours" prompt sticker onto your Story. You can resize it, move it, and add any other elements you like - text, music, GIFs, or other stickers.
5. Post to Your Story: When you're happy with how it looks, simply share it to your Story. Your post is now added to the public thread, and your followers can see the original prompt and add their own contributions directly from your Story.

Pro Tip: Want to see who else participated? Just tap on the sticker in your own Story. It will show a list of everyone who has added to the chain, giving you a great opportunity to discover and connect with new accounts.

Replying to Other Interactive Stickers (Q&,A, Polls, Sliders)

Beyond the "Add Yours" trend, everyday interactive stickers are your go-to for quick and easy engagement. Knowing how to use each one keeps you active in your feed and builds rapport with the accounts you follow.

How to Use Q&,A Stickers

Creators use Q&,A stickers to source questions for interviews, get feedback on products, or just have a chat. To answer, simply tap the text box that says "Type something..." at the bottom of the sticker. After you type your response or question and hit "Send," it goes directly to the creator's Story responses inbox. They can then choose to share your question publicly on another Story slide, often with their own answer or comment. It’s a fantastic way to start a direct line of communication with a creator.

How to Participate in Polls, Sliders, and Quizzes

These are the lowest-effort, highest-return stickers. Your interaction is immediate and adds to a collective result that the creator can share.

• Polls: Just tap on the option you vote for. You'll instantly see the live results and what percentage of people chose each option.
• Emoji Sliders: Drag the emoji along the scale to register your feeling or opinion. Once you let go, it shows you the current average response from everyone else.
• Quizzes: Tap the multiple-choice option you think is correct. It will immediately tell you if you got it right or wrong, adding a fun, game-like element to their content.

Engaging with these stickers consistently tells an account that you're paying attention. For smaller brands and creators, that active participation is highly valued and often remembered.

Level Up: Strategic Ways to Answer Prompts for Brand Growth

Simply answering prompts is great. But answering them strategically is how you turn a fun feature into a brand-building tool. Here’s how to be more intentional with your responses.

1. Align Every Response with Your Brand Niche

Don't just answer every prompt you see. Curate your participation. Your goal is for every action on Instagram to reinforce who you are and what you do.

• If you're a real estate agent, answering a prompt like "Show Your Favorite Local Spot" helps you market a neighborhood and showcases your local expertise.
• If you're a nutrition coach, answer a prompt like "What's for lunch?" with a visually appealing, healthy meal that reflects your philosophy.
• If you're a business consultant, a great response to "Your proudest moment this year?" could be a screenshot of a stellar client testimonial.

By staying on-brand, your profile becomes a consistent and memorable resource for anyone who discovers you through the prompt chain. For higher-quality engagement, create a prompt that speaks directly to your ideal follower.

2. Use Prompts as Inspiration for High-Value Content

Sometimes a simple Story prompt can spark a brilliant idea for a much bigger piece of content. If you see an "Add Yours" chain or a Q&,A that's getting a ton of interaction in your niche, treat it as audience research.

For example, you see a prompt: "What’s one thing you wish you knew when you started your business?" Answering this in a Story is nice. But you could also take that idea and turn it into:

• A multi-slide carousel post breaking down your top 3 lessons learned.
• A short, talking-head Reel where you share an impactful anecdote.
• A full Live session where you discuss the topic in-depth and answer audience questions.

This approach lets you take a topic that is already proven to be engaging and create a cornerstone piece of content around it.

3. Treat Your Answer Like a Piece of Micro-Content

The people viewing your content in an "Add Yours" chain might be seeing your account for the very first time. Make a good impression! Don't just post a low-effort, blurry photo. Treat your response like any other carefully curated piece of content.

Before you post, quickly ask yourself:

• Is the lighting good?
• Is the photo or video high-quality?
• Does the caption or text I added offer context or personality?

A well-composed photo or a cleanly edited video stands out in a crowded thread and is much more likely to earn you a tap-back to your profile.

Get Proactive: How to Create Your Own Engaging Prompts

Once you’re comfortable answering prompts, the next step is to start creating them yourself. This shifts you from a participant to a community leader, inviting others to create content based on your ideas.

How to Create a New "Add Yours" Sticker

1. Open your Instagram Story camera and take or upload a photo/video.
2. Tap the sticker icon at the top of the screen.
3. Select the "Add Yours" sticker.
4. A text box will appear. Type your custom prompt here (e.g., "Show me your current read," "My desk at 3pm," etc.).
5. Alternatively, you can tap the dice icon at the bottom of the sticker edits for a randomized prompt idea.
6. Position the sticker wherever you like and share your Story. Now your followers can become the first to add to your chain.

Tips for Writing Prompts People Actually Want to Answer

• Make it Easy: The simpler the task, the more people will participate. Prompts like "pet cameo" or "what you're listening to" are low-effort and require just one photo from a camera roll. Avoid prompts that are too introspective or require a lot of work.
• Keep it Visual: The best prompts ask for a photo or a video. The visual nature of an "Add Yours" chain is its main appeal.
• Tap into Shared Experiences: Prompts about universal topics are always a hit. Think coffee, pets, weather, workspaces, music, or last night's dinner. These are things nearly everyone has an opinion on or a photo of.
• Align it With Your Niche: For higher-quality engagement, create a prompt that speaks directly to your ideal follower. A bakery could start a "show us your home bakes" thread. A productivity expert could ask followers to "Show us your to-do list." This attracts people who are genuinely interested in your content.

Final Thoughts

Answering prompts is more than a novelty, it's a fundamental part of a modern Instagram strategy. It allows you to participate in trending conversations, demonstrate your personality, build community, and generate endless ideas for new content. By being intentional with how you answer and what you ask, you can turn this simple feature into a consistent driver of engagement and growth.

Once you get into the swing of using prompts to connect with followers, you'll see your comments and DMs start to pick up. To keep up with all the new conversations, we built the unified inbox in Postbase to pull your messages from every platform into one clean dashboard so you never miss a chance to respond. And when those promising Story prompts spark ideas for Reels or carousels, you can organize everything in our visual planner and schedule it across all your accounts without missing a beat.