How to Overlay Photos on Instagram Story

Layering multiple photos onto a single Instagram Story completely changes the game for creating dynamic, eye-catching content. It lets you break free from the one-photo-at-a-time format and open up a world of creative possibilities, from beautiful collages to compelling before-and-afters. This guide will walk you through three distinct methods for overlaying photos, covering everything from Instagram’s built-in tools to more advanced techniques using third-party apps.

Why Bother Overlaying Photos on Your Story?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly touch on the "why." You might be surprised by how this one simple technique can elevate your brand or personal account's entire Story strategy. It's not just about aesthetics, it’s about better communication and engagement.

• Enhanced Visual Storytelling: Sometimes, one photo can't tell the whole story. By layering multiple images, you can create a mini-narrative in a single slide. Think a product shot next to a happy customer testimonial, or a beautiful landscape shot followed by a close-up of a detail.
• Create Compelling Collages and Mood Boards: Content creators and brands, especially in fashion, design, and travel, can whip up quick mood boards on the fly. You can showcase a color palette, an outfit from head to toe, or a collection of inspiring images for your next project. It visually communicates a vibe or idea much more effectively than individual photos.
• Showcase Before-and-Afters: This is a powerful tool for service-based businesses like home organizing, fitness coaching, or beauty services. Placing a before and after photo side-by-side (or overlaid) in one Story slide provides an immediate, high-impact visual that grabs attention.
• Boost Engagement with Your Audience: Use photo overlays to make your Q&As more interesting. You can take a screenshot of a follower’s question sticker and layer a photo or video response next to it. It makes the interaction feel more direct and personal.
• Efficiently Share More Content: Instead of rapidly tapping through ten separate stories, your audience can absorb more information in one well-designed slide. You can feature multiple products, share different angles of one location, or highlight several team members at once.

Method 1: The Official Instagram Sticker Method (The Easiest Route)

In recent years, Instagram made this process incredibly simple by adding a dedicated "Photo" sticker. This is the most reliable and straightforward way to add another photo to your Story, whether you're using an iPhone or Android.

This method lets you add a photo on top of another photo, a video, or just a solid color background. Here’s how to do it step-by-step:

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Start Your Story: Open Instagram and swipe right or tap your profile picture to open the Story editor. Here, you'll need to establish your background layer. You can either take a new photo, select an existing photo or video from your camera roll, or tap the “Create” tool (the “Aa” icon) to choose a solid color background.
2. Open the Sticker Tray: Once your background is set, tap the sticker icon (the square smiley face) at the top of the screen. This will open the sticker tray where you find Polls, Quizzes, GIFs, and other interactive elements.
3. Find the "Photo" Sticker: Scroll down a bit in the sticker tray and you will find a circular icon that shows a preview of your camera roll, often with a little mountain-and-sun icon. This is the photo sticker. Tap it.
4. Select Your Overlay Photo: Your phone’s photo gallery will open. Scroll through and tap the picture you want to layer on top of your background. It will immediately appear on your Story screen as an overlay.
5. Customize the Photo Sticker: Now for the fun part. You can manipulate this newly added photo in several ways:
   • Resize: Use two fingers to pinch in to make it smaller or spread out to make it larger.
   • Reposition: Drag the photo anywhere on the screen with one finger.
   • Rotate: Use two fingers and a twisting motion to rotate the photo to any angle you like.
   • Change Shape (Our Favorite Tip!): Simply tap on the photo sticker! Instagram will cycle it through a few different shapes: a sharp-cornered square, a rounded-corner rectangle, a circle, a heart, and even a star. This is a fantastic way to quickly add some design flair without leaving the app.
6. Repeat to Add More Photos: Want to add more than one overlay? Easy. Just go back into the sticker tray, tap the photo sticker again, and select another image. You can add several photos to create a full collage, repositioning and resizing each one until you have the perfect layout.

Method 2: The Classic ‘Copy & Paste’ Hack

Before the photo sticker existed, this was the go-to method for savvy content creators. While the sticker method is now easier for most, the copy-and-paste trick is still second nature to many. It works flawlessly on iOS devices and can work on Android with a specific keyboard.

How to Overlay Photos with Copy & Paste on iPhone (iOS)

This feels like a little bit of tech wizardry, but it's remarkably simple.

1. Open Your Photos App: Leave Instagram for a moment and go to your iPhone’s Camera Roll.
2. Find and Copy Your Desired Photo: Navigate to the photo you want to use as your overlay. Tap the "Share" icon (the square with an upwards arrow) in the bottom-left corner. From the share menu, tap “Copy Photo.”
3. Return to Your Instagram Story: Go back to the Instagram app. You should already have your Story with its background image or video open.
4. Paste Your Photo as a Sticker: As soon as you navigate back to Instagram, a small pop-up should appear in the bottom-left corner of your screen showing a preview of the copied image and an “Add Sticker” button. Tap it, and your photo will appear as a sticker.
5. Alternate Paste Method: If for some reason the pop-up doesn't appear, don't worry. You can also tap the text tool (“Aa”) as if you were going to write something. Then, give a quick tap on the screen where the cursor is blinking, and a “Paste” option should appear. Tap it, and your copied photo will pop up.
6. Adjust and Place: Just like with the sticker method, you can now resize, position, and rotate your newly pasted photo to your heart's content. To add more images, just repeat the copy-paste process for each one.

A Note for Android Users

The copy-paste method is less straightforward on Android because of stock operating system differences. However, it's often possible if you are using specific keyboard apps like Google's Gboard or Microsoft's SwiftKey, as they have clipboard features that store images.

1. Copy the Image: Find the photo in your gallery app. The method to copy might vary - you may have to hit a menu (three dots) and find a "Copy to clipboard" option.
2. Open Instagram Story: Head back to your Story draft.
3. Use Your Keyboard's Clipboard: Open the text tool (“Aa”). On your keyboard, look for a clipboard icon. On Gboard, it's often on the top row. Tapping this will open your clipboard, where you should see the image you just copied. Tap it to paste it into your Story.

Method 3: Level Up with Third-Party Design Apps

If you want ultimate creative control, perfectly branded layouts, and designs that truly stand out, using a third-party app is the way to go. Apps like Canva, Unfold, or Adobe Express are built for this kind of work, offering templates, advanced layering, unique fonts, and other design elements that Instagram simply doesn't have.

The process here works a little differently. Instead of building your collage directly inside Instagram, you will create the entire Story slide as a single image in another app first, then upload it to your Story.

Quick Guide to Using a Design App:

1. Choose Your App: Download a user-friendly design app like Canva or Unfold. They have extensive free versions that work great.
2. Select an Instagram Story Template: These apps always have pre-sized templates for Instagram Stories (1080x1920 pixels), so you don't have to worry about dimensions. You can either start with a blank canvas or browse hundreds of professionally designed layouts.
3. Build Your Visual: This is where you have total freedom. Add your background image, then layer on other photos. You can easily adjust the size, add borders, make images transparent, layer text perfectly on top, and add other graphic elements that align with your branding. Because you're working in a proper design tool, you have more precise control over how all the elements interact.
4. Save Your Final Image: Once you love your design, export the final image or video to your phone's camera roll. It will now be saved as a single, complete asset.
5. Upload to Your Instagram Story: Open Instagram Stories, swipe up to open your camera roll, and select the final, beautiful image you just created. From here, you can still add interactive sticker elements like polls, music, or question boxes on top of it before you post.

When Is This Method Best?

This approach is perfect for brands that want a polished and consistent look, content creators planning a multi-Story sequence, or anyone looking to create something truly unique that couldn't be done within Instagram alone.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're using the simple Photo Sticker, the classic copy-and-paste hack, or a powerful third-party design tool, learning how to overlay photos completely transforms what's possible within Instagram Stories. These methods provide a creative toolbox to help you better communicate your message, show off your brand, and keep your audience engaged with stand-out visuals.

Once you’ve mastered creating beautiful multi-photo Stories, making time to post them consistently is the next hurdle. We know that batch-creating visuals is one of the best ways to stay on top of your content calendar, but getting that final creation from your desktop to being live can still be a drag. To bridge that gap, we designed Postbase with a clean, visual calendar that simplifies your entire content strategy from planning to publishing. We built it specifically with modern content like Stories and Reels in mind, making sure your creative visuals can be scheduled easily and reliably publish when you expect them to.