How to Save a Story on Instagram Highlights

Instagram Stories disappear in 24 hours, but your best content deserves to live on your profile forever. This is where Instagram Highlights come in, acting as curated collections that sit right below your bio for everyone to see. This guide walks you through exactly how to save an Instagram Story to your Highlights, turning fleeting moments into a powerful, permanent showcase for your brand or personality.

Why Instagram Highlights are a Game-Changer for Your Profile

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." Instagram Highlights aren't just for saving your favorite vacation photos, they're a strategic tool for anyone looking to build a brand, connect with an audience, or drive commercial results. Because of their prime location - right under your bio and above your main grid - they act like a navigation menu for your profile, instantly telling new visitors who you are and what you offer.

Think of them as a way to:

• Extend the life of your content: You spend time and effort creating great stories. Highlights rescue your top-performing tutorials, Q&A sessions, and behind-the-scenes clips from vanishing after 24 hours.
• Organize information for your audience: Instead of making followers scroll through months of posts, you can create dedicated Highlights for "FAQs," "Services," "Reviews," or different product categories. This provides instant value and answers common questions without you lifting a finger.
• Showcase your brand's personality: Use Highlights to feature your team, document your brand's origins, share user-generated content, or stand up for company values. It's a fantastic way to build a deeper connection that goes beyond just products or services.
• Drive consistent traffic: If you add link stickers to your Stories, saving them to a Highlight means you have a permanent call-to-action on your profile sending people to your website, blog, or shop. A "Shop Now" Highlight can become a major source of traffic.

In short, Highlights transform your profile from a simple photo gallery into a dynamic and organized resource for your followers.

How to Add a Story to a Highlight (The Step-by-Step Method)

There are two main ways to save a Story to your Highlights: while the Story is still live (within its 24-hour window) and after it has expired by pulling it from your archive. The archive method is generally more flexible for curating content over time.

First, Make Sure Your Story Archive is On

This is the most important step! If your Archive feature is turned off, your Stories will be gone forever once they pass the 24-hour mark. For most accounts, this setting is on by default, but it's always good to double-check.

Here's how to check:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top-right corner.
2. Tap on "Archive."
3. Tap the three dots in the top-right and select "Settings."
4. Make sure the toggle for "Save story to archive" is turned on.

With that setting enabled, Instagram will automatically save all your published Stories, making them available for you to create Highlights whenever you want.

Method 1: Creating a Highlight from an Active Story

This is the quickest way to add something to a Highlight the moment you post it. If you've just shared a Story and immediately know you want it featured on your profile, follow these steps.

1. View your own Story: Tap your profile picture from your feed to open your current Story.
2. Tap the "Highlight" icon: Look at the bottom of the screen. You'll see an icon of a heart inside a circle. Tap on it.
3. Add to a Highlight: A menu will pop up. From here you can either:
   • Tap on an existing Highlight to add the Story to that collection.
   • Tap "New" to create a brand-new Highlight. If you select "New," you'll be prompted to give it a name (e.g., "Tips," "Q&A," "Events") before saving.
4. Confirm: Once you've selected a Highlight or created a new one, the Story will be instantly saved and visible on your profile.

Method 2: Creating a Highlight from Your Story Archive

This is the more common method, as it allows you to carefully curate content from weeks or even months ago. This is how you'll build out multiple, strategic Highlight categories for your brand.

1. Go to your profile: Navigate to your main Instagram profile page.
2. Tap the "New" button: Look directly below your bio for a circle with a plus sign (+) inside, usually labeled "New." Tapping this will open your Story Archive.
3. Select your stories: Scroll through your archive and tap to select all the Stories you want to include in this specific Highlight. You can see the dates they were posted to help you find what you're looking for. A blue circle with a checkmark will appear on the ones you've selected.
4. Tap "Next": Once you've chosen all your stories, hit "Next" in the top-right corner.
5. Edit your Cover and Name: On this screen, you get to name your Highlight. This is the text that appears beneath the circle on your profile. You can also tap "Edit Cover" to choose a thumbnail. You can select one of the stories you've added or upload a clean, branded image directly from your camera roll.
6. Tap "Add" (or "Done"): Once you're happy with the name and cover, tap "Add" (on iPhone) or "Done" (on Android), and your new Highlight will appear on your profile.

Editing and Customizing Your Highlights for a Polished Look

Your work isn't done once a Highlight is created. Keeping them updated, organized, and on-brand is just as important. Here's how to manage them.

How to Add or Remove Stories from an Existing Highlight

Your business evolves, and your Highlights should too. You might want to add new testimonials to a "Reviews" Highlight or remove an outdated promotion.

• To add or remove stories, simply press and hold the Highlight you want to modify, right from your profile.
• A menu will appear. Select "Edit Highlight."
• From here, navigate to the "Stories" tab. You can deselect stories to remove them or select new ones from your archive to add them. The story you remove will stay in your archive, it will just disappear from the public-facing Highlight.
• Tap "Done" to save your changes.

How to Change Your Highlight Cover and Name

A consistent set of branded Highlight covers can instantly make your profile look more professional and visually appealing. Many brands design custom icons in Canva or another design tool that align with their logo, website, and brand colors.

• Press and hold the Highlight you want to change, and select "Edit Highlight."
• In the center of the screen, tap on "Edit Cover."
• Here you can slide through the stories already in the Highlight to pick a new cover image. More importantly, you can also tap the small image icon on the far left to upload a photo directly from your camera roll. This is how you upload custom-designed cover icons.
• You can also change the Name of the Highlight from this same screen.
• Tap "Done" to save everything.

Strategic Highlight Ideas to Build Your Brand

Now that you know the mechanics, what should you actually be saving? The possibilities are endless, but effective Highlights always serve a purpose. Here are some proven ideas to get you started:

For Businesses & Services:

• Products/Services: Show them off! Create a dedicated Highlight for each major product category or service you offer.
• How-To's: Show your products in action or offer tips related to your industry.
• Testimonials/Reviews: Screenshot positive feedback, share customer videos, and collect all that social proof in one easy-to-find place.
• FAQ: What are the questions you keep getting in your DMs? Put the answers in a Highlight.
• Meet the Team: Humanize your brand by introducing the people behind it.
• BTS (Behind the Scenes): Show your followers how the sausage gets made. It builds trust and authenticity.

For Creators & Personal Brands:

• About Me: Tell your story. What's your mission? Who are you?
• Tutorials: Share your knowledge in a format that people can return to again and again.
• Favorites: Share the tools, books, apps, or gear you use and love. This can also be an effective monetization strategy with affiliate links.
• Travel: Group trips by destination.
• Press/Features: Did a publication mention you? Were you on a podcast? Save those features here.

Final Thoughts

Saving your Instagram Stories to Highlights is an essential strategy for transforming your profile from a passive feed into an active resource for your community. By curating your best content into easy-to-navigate categories, you provide immediate value to new visitors and build a stronger, more lasting brand presence that works for you around the clock.

Thinking strategically about your social content - from individual Stories to the Highlights they eventually live in - becomes much easier when everything is organized in one place. That's why we built Postbase with a clean, visual content calendar that lets us plan our Stories, Reels, and feed posts at a glance. Seeing our whole content strategy mapped out makes it simple to ensure we always have high-quality material ready for sharing - and ready to take a permanent place on our profile Highlights.