How to Combine Highlights on Instagram

Trying to consolidate your Instagram Highlights into a single, organized story? You've come to the right place. While Instagram doesn't offer a direct merge button, creating a perfectly combined Highlight from existing ones is simple once you know the right steps. This guide will walk you through the entire process and give you some pro tips for making your Highlights an even more powerful asset for your brand.

The Straight Answer: Can You Directly Merge Instagram Highlights?

Let's get this out of the way first: no, you cannot directly merge two existing Instagram Highlights into one. There's no feature that allows you to drag one Highlight on top of another and combine them. That’s because each Highlight is essentially a curated playlist built directly from individual Stories you've posted in the past. To combine them, you need to go back to the source - your Story Archive - and build a new, better playlist from scratch.

Think of it like this: your old Highlights are finished mixtapes. You can't magically fuse two mixtapes together. Instead, you need to pull your favorite songs from both to create a new, definitive "best of" collection. The good news is that this process gives you complete control over the final product, allowing you to reorder, add, or remove content to tell a more cohesive story.

The Best Way to Combine Highlights: Create a New One From Your Archive

This is the most effective and common method for combining your Highlights. It involves creating a brand new Highlight and populating it with the saved Stories from the ones you want to merge. It’s clean, precise, and leaves you with a perfectly curated final product.

Step 1: Make Sure Your Story Archive is On

Before you can do anything, you need access to your past Stories. Instagram automatically saves them to a private archive, but it's always a good idea to double-check this setting is enabled. If it isn't, you won't be able to access the content needed to build your new Highlight.

• Go to your Instagram profile and tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top-right corner.
• Select Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down to Archiving and downloading.
• Make sure the Save story to archive toggle is turned on.

Once enabled, every Story you post will automatically be saved here, waiting for you to turn it into a Highlight later. If you want to view your archive, simply go to your profile, tap the hamburger menu, and select Archive.

Step 2: Create a New Highlight

Now, let's build your new home for those combined Stories. This is done right from your main profile page.

• On your Instagram profile, under your bio, you’ll see your existing Highlights. To the left, there's a circle with a plus sign labeled New. Tap it.
• This will immediately open your Story Archive, showing every Story you've ever posted (as long as archiving was on).

Step 3: Select the Stories for Your Combined Highlight

Here’s where you become a content curator. Your archive is sorted from most recent to oldest. Scroll through and select all the Stories from the different Highlights you want to combine.

• Tap the circle in the top right corner of each Story's thumbnail to select it. A blue checkmark will appear.
• As you select Stories, you can see them appearing at the bottom of the screen. Don’t worry about the order just yet, just focus on getting all the relevant content selected.
• If you have a lot of Stories, use the calendar icon or the location map at the top of the archive to quickly jump to specific dates or places, making it easier to find older content.
• Once you've selected all the desired Stories, tap Next.

Step 4: Choose a Name and Cover

Now you're finalizing the look of your newly combined Highlight. This is a critical branding step - a clean name and on-brand cover make your profile look polished and professional.

• Edit Cover: Instagram will automatically select the first Story you added as the cover. Tap Edit Cover to change it. You can either scroll through the selected Stories to pick a different frame or tap the image icon to upload a custom cover from your camera roll. Using a custom, branded graphic designed specifically for your Highlights is highly recommended.
• Name Your Highlight: Below the cover preview, type in a clear and concise name for your Highlight (e.g., "Our Process," "Client Wins," "NYC '24"). You have up to 15 characters, but shorter is often better.

Tap Add (on iPhone) or Done (on Android), and your new, combined Highlight will appear on your profile!

Step 5: Clean Up Your Profile

Your work isn't quite done. You now have your new, comprehensive Highlight, but the old, separate ones are still cluttering your profile. It's time to delete them.

• Press and hold on the old Highlight you want to remove.
• A menu will pop up. Select Delete Highlight and confirm.
• Repeat this for any other old Highlights you've now combined.

Don't worry - deleting a Highlight doesn't delete the Stories from your archive. They are all still safe and sound. Now your profile looks cleaner, and your audience can easily find all the related content in one place.

Quick Alternative: Add Stories to an Existing Highlight

Sometimes, you might not want to create a whole new Highlight. Instead, you just want to move the Stories from "Highlight B" into "Highlight A" to consolidate them. This keeps the placement of "Highlight A" on your profile and gets the job done faster.

Here’s how to do it:

1. On your profile, tap the Highlight you want to add content to (your destination Highlight).
2. As it plays, tap the More option (three dots) in the bottom right corner.
3. Select Edit Highlight.
4. You'll see two tabs: 'Selected' and 'Stories.' Tap on the Stories tab to go back to your archive.
5. Now, select all the archived Stories that were in the other Highlight you want to merge. The Stories already in your destination Highlight will have a blue checkmark, so just look for the other ones you need.
6. Tap Done when you’re finished.
7. Finally, go back to your profile and delete the now-empty or redundant Highlight that you pulled the content from.

This method is great for quick consolidations, but be mindful that a single Instagram Highlight can only hold a maximum of 100 Stories.

Strategic Tips for More Effective Highlights

Combining Highlights isn't just about tidiness, it's a strategic move to improve your profile's user experience. Since you’re already reorganizing, here are a few ways to make your Highlights work harder for you.

1. Organize by Content Pillars

Use your Highlights as a navigational menu for your brand. Instead of random collections, group your content into logical categories that serve your audience and business goals.

• Services/Products: Showcase what you offer.
• Q&,A / FAQs: Answer common questions to reduce friction for new followers.
• Testimonials/Reviews: A dedicated home for all your social proof.
• About Me/Us: Tell your story and connect with your audience.
• Behind the Scenes (BTS): Show how the sausage is made and build authenticity.

2. Create Branded Covers

Nothing screams "professional" like a set of cohesive, branded Highlight covers. They create a clean, uniform look for the top of your profile and make it visually appealing. You don't need to be a designer to create them. Apps like Canva offer free templates perfectly sized for Instagram highlight covers. Stick to your brand's colors, fonts, and use simple icons that clearly represent the content inside.

3. Tell a Cohesive Story

When you're editing a Highlight, you can drag and drop the selected Stories to reorder them. The first Story in the list will be the first one viewers see. Use this to create a logical flow. If you made a combined Highlight for a project, arrange the Stories chronologically to show the progression from start to finish. For a "FAQs" Highlight, put the most important questions first.

4. Keep Them Updated

Highlights should be a living part of your profile, not an archive you set and forget. Periodically review them - once a quarter is a good cadence. Remove outdated information, like old promotions or expired offers. Use the consolidation process you learned today to merge older events into a single "Archive" or "Past Events" Highlight to keep your primary display focused and relevant.

Final Thoughts

Although you can't click a single button to merge Instagram Highlights, creating a new, consolidated one from your archive is a straightforward and powerful way to organize your profile. By curating your best content into neat categories, you make your profile tremendously valuable for new visitors and loyal followers alike.

Organizing your profile is just one piece of the puzzle. At Postbase, we built our platform to simplify the entire social media management process, especially for visually-driven platforms like Instagram. With our visual calendar, you can plan your content, including the Stories that will eventually become your perfect Highlights, seeing your entire strategy laid out in one place. It helps make sure your content is cohesive and consistently on-brand, from the feed post all the way to the Highlight cover.