How to Make a Collaborative Collection on Instagram

Instagram’s Collaborative Collections let you create a shared, private space to save posts with another user. It’s a simple but surprisingly powerful tool for everything from planning a project with a colleague to building a vacation itinerary with a friend. This guide walks you through exactly how to create and use Collaborative Collections, with practical strategies for both business and personal life.

What is an Instagram Collaborative Collection?

Think of it as a secret, shared Pinterest board right inside Instagram. A Collaborative Collection is a private folder where you and one other person can save Instagram posts - Reels, feed posts, and images - that you both can see and contribute to. It's different from sharing posts in a DM, instead of cluttering your chat with links, you get an organized gallery dedicated to a specific theme or project.

When you add someone to a collection, they can see everything already saved and add new posts themselves. For instance, if you’re planning a brand photoshoot, you and the photographer can create a shared collection for visual inspiration. Or if you and your best friend share a love for a specific type of humor, you can build a library of your favorite memes and Reels. It's collaboration in its simplest, most visual form.

How to Make a Collaborative Collection on Instagram: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating your first collaborative collection only takes a minute. The process starts just like saving any other post. Just make sure you and your collaborator are following each other before you begin.

Step 1: Save a Post

First, find any post you'd like to use as the starting point for your shared collection. It can be a photo, a carousel, or a Reel. Tap the bookmark icon located at the bottom right corner of the post.

Step 2: Create a New Collection

Once you tap the bookmark icon, a small pop-up will appear at the bottom of the screen that says "Saving to collection..." Tap on this pop-up banner. This will take you to a screen where you can choose which collection to save the post to. Select “Create collection.”

Step 3: Name Your Collection and Enable Collaboration

A new screen will prompt you to name your collection. Give it a clear, descriptive name like "Q3 Content Ideas" or "Paris Trip 2024" so it’s easy to identify later. Right below the name field, you'll see a toggle switch labeled "Collaboration." Tap this switch to turn it on - it should turn blue.

Step 4: Invite Your Collaborator

After enabling the collaboration toggle, a search bar will appear, allowing you to choose one person to collaborate with. Start typing the username of the friend, client, or colleague you want to invite. Select their profile from the list when it appears. Remember, for now, you can only add one other person to a collection.

Step 5: Save and Send the Invitation

Once you’ve named the collection and selected your collaborator, tap "Save" in the top right corner. This officially creates the collection and sends an invitation directly to your collaborator via their Instagram DMs. Your collection is now live on your end, but it won’t be truly collaborative until the other person accepts.

Step 6: The Collaborator Accepts the Invite

Your collaborator will see a notification in their direct messages inviting them to join the shared collection. The message will look like a shared post, with a button that says “View collection.” When they tap it, they'll see the collection and must hit the “Accept” button at the top to finalize the collaboration. Once they accept, they’ll have full access to add and view content.

Creative Ways to Use Instagram Collaborative Collections

Now that you know how to make one, what can you actually do with it? This feature is incredibly versatile. Here are some ideas for putting it to work for your brand, your clients, or just your personal life.

For Brands, Entrepreneurs, and Content Creators

• Develop Mood Boards with Clients: As a social media manager, graphic designer, or photographer, visual alignment with your client is everything. Create a collaborative collection to build a mood board for an upcoming campaign, website redesign, or photoshoot. You can save brand aesthetics, color palettes, photo styles, and competitor content you want to draw inspiration from. This prevents miscommunication and gets everyone on the same page visually before any work begins.
• Collaborate with Other Creators: Partnering with another influencer or creator for a giveaway, Reel series, or live event? Use a shared collection to gather ideas. Both of you can add posts demonstrating different camera angles, audio clips you want to use, or visuals that match the project's theme. It’s an efficient way to brainstorm without messy group chats or long email threads.
• Source User-Generated Content (UGC): If you have a business partner or a social media teammate, you can create a collection to gather potential UGC. Whenever either of you sees a great customer post featuring your product, you can save it to the "UGC Candidates" collection. This creates a running list of high-quality content ready for you to request permission to repurpose.
• Competitor Research and Trend Spotting: Keep a shared collection with a teammate dedicated to tracking what your competitors are doing or spotting new trends. One person might notice an interesting Reel format, while another finds a clever ad campaign. Saving them both to the same place makes it easy to discuss strategy and decide if you want to adapt similar tactics for your own brand.

For Personal Use

• Plan a Vacation: This is one of the best personal uses. Planning a trip with a friend or partner? Create a collaborative collection and save posts of restaurants, hotels, famous landmarks, hidden gems, and photo spots that you see on Instagram. It becomes your visual travel guide, all in one place, that you both can add to whenever inspiration strikes.
• Curate a Wishlist: If you're planning a gift for a mutual friend or building a wedding registry, a shared collection is perfect for gathering ideas. You and another person can casually drop links to products, styles, or experiences you find, creating a gift list without tipping off the recipient.
• Home Decor or Renovation Projects: Redecorating a room with your partner or roommate? Use a shared collection to save furniture, home decor styles, DIY projects, and paint color ideas you both like. It’s a great way to figure out shared tastes without having to text each other countless screenshots.
• Recipe Swapping and Meal Planning: If you live with someone, you can create a collection dedicated to recipes you want to try. Whenever you see a delicious-looking Reel or food blogger post, save it to the shared list. When it's time to go grocery shopping, you have a collection full of approved ideas to choose from.

How to Manage Your Collaborative Collection

Once your collection is up and running, you'll need to know where to find it and how to manage it.

Where to Find a Collaborative Collection

You can find all of your saved posts and collections by going to your profile. Tap the three horizontal lines (the burger menu) in the top right corner and select "Saved". Your collaborative collection will appear here alongside your private ones. They often have a small icon showing two profiles to indicate they're shared.

Adding More Posts to an Existing Collection

This process is even simpler than creating a new collection. When you find a post you want to add, just tap the bookmark icon. Instead of creating a new one, simply select your existing collaborative collection from the list that appears. The post will instantly be visible to both you and your collaborator.

Removing a User or Leaving a Collection

If a project ends or you no longer need the shared collection, you can manage the members.

1. Navigate to the collection within your "Saved" items.
2. Tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner.
3. From here, you’ll have the option to “Edit collection.”
4. You can then go to "Members" to remove the other person, or if you're the one wanting to leave, you can choose to "Leave" the collection yourself. This will remove your access. The collection will remain for the original creator.

Final Thoughts

Collaborative Collections on Instagram offer a simple yet effective way to privately collect and share inspiration with another person. Whether for professional project mood boards or personal travel planning, they turn passive saving into an active, shared experience that’s organized and easy to manage.

While Instagram's collections are perfect for one-to-one curation, scaling your content strategy with a full team requires a more centralized and powerful setup. That’s exactly why we built Postbase. We provide a beautiful visual calendar that lets you see your entire content plan at a glance, schedule posts reliably across every platform (including short-form video), and collaborate with your entire team without the clunkiness of decade-old software. It brings that collaborative spirit to your whole social media workflow.