How to Change Story Settings on Instagram

Thinking about who sees your Instagram Story can feel a bit like throwing a party and not knowing who’s on the guest list. You need more control than just hitting post. This guide will walk you through every setting you can change for your Instagram Stories, from hiding them from specific people to managing who can reply and share your content.

Finding Your Instagram Story Settings

Before you can customize anything, you need to know where to find the control panel. Instagram nests these options within your main settings menu. Reaching them only takes a few taps.

Here’s the universal path to your Story settings:

1. Open your Instagram profile page by tapping your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
2. Tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Settings and Privacy from the menu.
4. Scroll down to the "Who can see your content" section.
5. Tap on Hide story and live.

This is your home base for most privacy-related Story controls. We’ll also touch on reply and sharing settings, which are located nearby in the same "Settings and Privacy" menu.

How to Hide Your Instagram Story From Specific People

One of the most powerful privacy tools is the ability to prevent certain accounts from viewing your Stories without blocking them entirely. This is perfect for keeping your weekend updates private from a boss, an ex-partner, or a particularly nosy relative. They won’t be notified that you’ve hidden your story from them, it will simply never appear in their Stories bar.

Step-by-Step Guide to Hiding Your Story:

1. Navigate to the Hide story and live menu using the steps above.
2. Tap the first option, Hide story and live video from.
3. You’ll see a list of your followers. You can search for specific people using the search bar at the top or scroll through the list.
4. Tap the circle next to the name of each person you want to hide your content from. A blue checkmark will appear.
5. Once you're done selecting, tap Done (on iOS) or the back arrow (on Android).

Your list is now saved. Any story you post from this point on will be invisible to those accounts. You can return to this list at any time to add or remove people.

Pro Tip: This is a retroactive setting. If you add someone to your hidden list after posting a story, they will immediately lose access to that active story.

Creating and Using a Close Friends List

Instead of hiding your content from a few people, you might want to share it with only a select group. That’s exactly what the Close Friends list is for. When you post a Story for Close Friends, a green circle appears around it in the Stories bar instead of the usual pink-and-orange gradient. Only people on your list will see it and a green "Close Friends" badge will show on the top right when they are viewing it.

This feature is a game-changer for building community and sharing exclusive content.

How to Set Up Your Close Friends List:

1. Go to your profile and tap the "hamburger" menu in the top right.
2. Select Close Friends. It should have a star icon next to it and it lives in the "Who can see your content" section too.
3. Search for the friends you want to add and tap the Add button next to their names. Or you can navigate through the "Suggestions" tab.
4. The list saves automatically as you add people. You can edit it whenever you like by returning to this screen and tapping Remove. No one is notified when you add or remove them.

Ideas for Using Close Friends as a Creator or Brand:

• Behind-the-Scenes Access: Show a raw, unfiltered look at your creative process.
• Exclusive Offers: Give your most engaged followers first dibs on sales or new products.
• Polls and Q&,As: Gather feedback from a smaller, trusted group of people.
• Personal Updates: Keep your genuine friends in the loop without broadcasting to your entire audience.

Controlling Who Can Reply to Your Stories

Community engagement is fantastic, but sometimes managing replies can be overwhelming, especially for accounts with a large following. Instagram gives you precise control over who can send you a message in response to your Story.

You can find this setting by going to Settings and Privacy >, Messages and story replies >, Story replies.

Here you'll find three options:

• Allow story replies from everyone: This is the default setting. Anyone who sees your Story can reply to it. This is great for maximizing brand engagement and connecting with new followers.
• Allow story replies from people you follow: This tightens your circle to people you have a mutual connection with. It helps reduce spam and unsolicited messages while still allowing your community to reach you.
• Don't allow story replies: This option completely disables replies. It’s useful if you’re posting about a sensitive topic, running a one-way announcement, or simply don't have the capacity for community management at the moment. People can still react with an emoji, but the text reply box will disappear.

Saving and Archiving Your Story Content Automatically

Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, but that doesn't mean your content has to be gone forever. The Story Archive is an incredibly valuable tool that saves your Stories automatically, creating a private library of your content that you can revisit, re-share, or use to create Highlights on your profile.

To manage these settings, navigate to Settings and Privacy >, Archiving and downloading.

You’ll see a few important toggles:

• Save story to archive: This should be on by default. When enabled, every Story you post is automatically saved to your private archive after it expires. This is highly recommended as it uses no storage on your phone and powers the "Highlights" and "Memories" features.
• Save Story to Camera Roll: This automatically saves a copy of every photo or video from your Story directly to your phone's photo library. Be mindful that this can quickly fill up your device's storage. It's often better to manually save a specific Story if you want a copy on your phone.

Turning on the archive feature is a smart move for any creator or brand. It allows you to build a content library and repurpose your best-performing Stories into permanent profile real estate via Highlights.

Managing Who Can Share Your Story

Sharing is a key driver of organic reach on Instagram. When someone shares your Story, it expands your audience to their followers. But you get to decide if and how that happens.

These controls are located under Settings and Privacy >, Sharing and remixes.

Key Sharing Options to Configure:

• Allow story sharing to messages: This toggle lets viewers share your entire Story directly with another user via a Direct Message. For most public accounts, this is a setting you’ll want to keep enabled to encourage word-of-mouth discovery.
• Allow sharing Reels to Stories from your grid: This allows viewers of your Reels the ability to easily share your Reels to their Story. This is great in some scenarios but may not make sense to enable if you post a high volume of Reels.
• Enable sharing story to Facebook: This toggle allows you to cross-post directly from the Instagram app as you are about to publish your Story. It’s a great way to save time and keep both audiences engaged if you maintain a presence on both platforms.

By thoughtfully configuring these settings, you turn your followers into an extension of your marketing team. When they share your content, they’re providing a personal endorsement that’s far more impactful than a typical advertisement.

Final Thoughts

Mastering your Instagram Story settings transforms the feature from a simple broadcast tool into a sophisticated communication channel. By customizing who sees your content, who can interact with it, and how it can be shared, you gain complete command over your narrative and your community's experience.

At Postbase, we know that strategic publishing is at the heart of great social media management. Thinking through your audience for each piece of content helps you create better, more effective work. Our visual calendar makes it simple to plan your entire content strategy - including your Stories - so you can see what’s going live and where, giving you the clarity needed to connect with the right people at the right time.