How to Make a Story Highlight on Instagram

Instagram Story Highlights are one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on your entire profile. Think of them as the interactive menu for your brand, sitting just below your bio, ready to guide new followers and tell them exactly what you're all about. This guide will walk you through everything, from the simple steps of creating your first Highlight to the strategic secrets of making them a powerful tool for your business.

What Are Instagram Story Highlights (and Why Should You Care)?

In the simplest terms, Instagram Story Highlights are curated collections of your past Instagram Stories that you choose to "save" or feature on your profile. Unlike regular Stories that vanish after 24 hours, Highlights live on permanently until you decide to remove them. They are your chance to make a lasting first impression.

Why are they so important? Because they solve the temporary nature of Stories. You might post a fantastic tutorial, a glowing customer testimonial, or a detailed Q&A to your Story, only for it to disappear a day later. Highlights let you rescue that valuable content from the abyss and organize it into easy-to-navigate folders for your audience.

For a business or personal brand, they function like a website's navigation bar:

• "About Us": Introduce your brand, team, or mission.
• "FAQs": Answer the most common questions you get in DMs.
• "Products/Services": Showcase what you sell with demos and details.
• "Reviews": Build social proof with customer testimonials.
• "How-To's": Provide value with tutorials related to your niche.

By organizing your best content this way, you improve the user experience, educate new followers instantly, and build a professional, trustworthy presence on the platform.

First Things First: Turn On Your Story Archive

Before you can create a single Highlight, you need to tell Instagram to save your Stories. If this feature isn't enabled, your Stories will disappear into the digital ether after 24 hours, and you won't have anything to pull from. Checking this setting is the non-negotiable first step.

Here's how to make sure your Story Archive is turned on:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
2. Tap on "Settings and Privacy."
3. Scroll down to the "Your app and media" section and tap on "Archiving and downloading."
4. Make sure the toggle for "Save story to archive" is turned on (it should be blue).

That's it! From now on, every Instagram Story you post will be automatically saved to a private archive that only you can see. This collection is the bank from which you will draw all your future Highlights.

Creating Your First Highlight: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once you have some Stories saved in your archive, you can create your first Highlight. On your profile, you'll see a spot for Highlights directly under your bio and profile information. It will look like a grey circle with a plus sign in it that says "New."

Follow these steps to build your Highlight:

1. Tap the "+" (New) Icon: Go to your Instagram profile page and tap the "+" icon located under your bio.
2. Select from Your Archive: Instagram will now open your Story Archive, showing you all the Stories you've posted in the past (starting with the most recent). Tap the circle in the corner of each Story you want to include in this specific Highlight. A blue checkmark will appear on the ones you select.
3. Tap "Next": Once you've selected all the Stories for this collection, tap the "Next" button in the top-right corner.
4. Choose a Name and Cover: On the next screen, you'll be prompted to give your Highlight a name. Keep it short and descriptive (e.g., "Reviews," "About Us," "DIY"). You will also be asked to "Edit Cover." You can choose a frame from one of the Stories you've selected or upload a custom image from your camera roll (more on this later!).
5. Finalize It: After naming your Highlight and setting the cover, tap "Add" (or "Done" on some devices). Voila! The Highlight will now appear publicly on your profile. You can repeat this process for as many Highlight categories as you need.

How to Add New Stories to an Existing Highlight

Your Highlights aren't set in stone. As your brand evolves, you'll want to add new content to keep them fresh and relevant. There are two easy ways to do this.

Method 1: Adding From an Existing Highlight

This method is perfect for updating highlights with content you've already posted to your archive.

1. Navigate to your Instagram profile.
2. Press and hold the Highlight you want to add to.
3. A menu will pop up. Select "Edit Highlight."
4. You'll see the members of the current highlight under the "Selected" tab. Switch over to the "Stories" tab to see your full archive again.
5. Select any new Stories you want to add.
6. Tap "Done" in the top-right corner. The new content will now be part of that Highlight.

Method 2: Adding From Your Current Active Story

This is the best way to add content in real-time. If you've just posted a Story that is perfect for one of your Highlight collections, you don't have to wait 24 hours for it to go into the archive.

1. Post a Story as you normally would.
2. While the Story is still live, open it up to view it.
3. At the bottom of the screen, you'll see an icon that says "Highlight." Tap it.
4. A menu will appear showing all your existing Highlights. Tap the one you want to add the Story to. You can also create a brand new Highlight directly from this screen by tapping "New."

Your active Story will immediately be saved to that Highlight, so you don't have to worry about it disappearing or forgetting to add it later.

Level Up Your Profile: Creating Custom Highlight Covers

The default Highlight cover (just a cropped thumbnail from one of the Stories) works, but creating custom, on-brand covers is what separates an average profile from a professional one. Consistent Highlight covers give your profile a clean, polished, and aesthetically pleasing look that makes followers more likely to engage with them.

What Makes a Good Highlight Cover?

• Simplicity: The cover is very small on your profile. A clean, bold icon or simple text is far more effective than a busy photograph.
• Consistency: Use your brand's colors and fonts to create a cohesive look that matches your overall brand identity.
• Clarity: The icon should instantly communicate the contents of the Highlight. A shopping cart icon for "Shop," a price tag for "Sales," or a plane for "Travel" are clear and universally understood.

How to Create Custom Covers

You don't need to be a graphic designer. Tools like Canva or Adobe Express have thousands of free icons and templates that make this incredibly easy.

A Quick Canva Tutorial:

1. In Canva, search for "Instagram Story" to start a design with the perfect dimensions (1080 x 1920 pixels).
2. Change the background color to match your brand palette.
3. Go to the "Elements" tab on the left and search for an icon that represents your Highlight (e.g., "email," "star," "question mark").
4. Drag the icon onto your design, center it, and change its color to another one of your brand colors.
5. Once you're happy with it, download the image to your phone's camera roll.

Create one of these for each of your Highlight categories to build a complete, branded set.

How to Add Your Custom Cover to a Highlight

Thankfully, Instagram makes this simple. You no longer need to post the cover image to your Story first.

1. Go to your profile and press and hold on the Highlight you want to update.
2. Select "Edit Highlight."
3. At the very top of the screen, tap "Edit Cover."
4. Instead of selecting a thumbnail from one of the stories, tap the small image gallery icon on the left.
5. Select the custom cover image you designed from your phone's camera roll.
6. Pinch and drag to position the icon perfectly in the circular preview frame.
7. Tap "Done" three times - once to set the cover, once to finish the cover edit, and once to save the Highlight changes. Your beautiful new cover will now be live!

Beyond "How-To": Strategic Highlight Ideas for Your Business

Now that you know how to create them, what should your Highlights be about? The key is to think from your audience's perspective. What information do they need most? What journey do you want to take them on?

Here are some strategic ideas for different types of businesses:

• E-commerce Brands: "New," "Reviews," "Sale," "How to Use," "FAQ," "Returns."
• Coaches & Consultants: "About Me," "Services," "Clients," "Tips," "Press," "Podcast."
• Local Businesses & Restaurants: "Menu," "Hours," "Events," "Specials," "Reviews," "Behind-the-Scenes."
• Content Creators & Influencers: "Q&A," "Travel," "Brands," "My Faves," "Tutorials," "Links."

Arrange them in order of importance, from left to right. The first four or five Highlights are the most visible on a mobile device without scrolling, so place your highest-priority folders there.

Final Thoughts

Instagram Story Highlights turn your profile from a simple grid of photos into a dynamic resource for your community. By curating your best content into neat folders with polished covers, you create a professional storefront that guides followers, answers questions, and tells your brand story effectively.

As we've seen, managing Stories and planning content for Highlights is an ongoing process. To make this easier, we built Postbase with modern content formats like Reels and Stories at its core. You can use our visual planner to map out not just your posts but your Story sequences, making sure you have a steady stream of valuable content ready to be archived and turned into compelling Highlights. It keeps everything organized in one place, so you can build your brand without getting lost in the daily chaos of social media management.