How to Select Multiple Photos for an Instagram Story

Tired of posting your Instagram Story photos one by one? You can easily select and upload multiple photos at once, creating a seamless and engaging sequence for your followers. This guide covers a few different ways to add multiple pictures to your Story, from creating separate slides in one go to designing beautiful, layered collages on a single screen.

Why Bother Adding Multiple Photos to Your Story?

Before we get into the "how," let’s briefly touch on the "why." Posting multiple photos or videos to your Story in a sequence is more than just a time-saver, it’s a powerful engagement tactic. As a brand builder or content creator, you can use multi-photo Stories to:

• Tell a more complete story: Showcase a step-by-step tutorial, a before-and-after transformation, or cover an event from start to finish.
• Increase engagement: Sequential Stories encourage viewers to tap through to see what comes next, keeping them interacting with your content for longer.
• Create a 'photo dump' effect: Share a series of candid shots from your day, a trip, or a project to give your audience an authentic behind-the-scenes look.
• Boost retention: A well-crafted multi-part Story can hold a viewer's interest far more effectively than a single, static image.

Ultimately, it allows you to communicate more context and personality in a format that feels dynamic and native to the platform. Now, let’s look at the different ways you can do it.

Method 1: Using the Native "Select" Feature (for Separate Slides)

This is the most direct method for adding up to 10 photos and videos from your camera roll, where each piece of media becomes its own individual slide in your Story. It's fast, efficient, and perfect for creating a narrative sequence.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open the Instagram Story Creator: Launch the Instagram app and swipe right from your home feed or tap the plus (+) icon at the bottom of the screen and select "Story."
2. Access Your Camera Roll: Instead of taking a photo, swipe up from the bottom of the screen or tap the little square preview icon in the bottom-left corner. This will open your phone's photo gallery.
3. Activate Multi-Select Mode: Look for the "Select" option. It’s usually represented by an icon of overlapping squares in the top-right corner of your gallery view. Tap this icon.
4. Choose Your Photos: Once multi-select mode is on, you can tap on the photos and videos you want to include. A little numbered circle will appear on each thumbnail, indicating the order it will appear in your Story. You can select up to 10 items. If you change your mind, just tap a selected photo again to deselect it.
5. Import Your Selection: Once you've chosen all your media, tap the "Next" button at the bottom-right of the screen.
6. Edit Each Slide Individually: Now comes the fun part. All your selected photos and videos will appear as individual slides at the bottom of the editor. You can tap on each thumbnail to edit it separately. Add text, stickers, GIFs, polls, or apply different filters to each slide before you post.
7. Share Your Story: When you're happy with all your slides, tap "Next" again and share it to your Story. Your followers will see them appear as a sequential, tappable series.

Pro-Tip: This method is fantastic for revealing something piece by piece. For example, a business could show curated detail shots of a new product, one after the other, building anticipation with each tap.

Method 2: Using the "Layout" Feature (for a Single-Slide Collage)

What if you don't want separate slides? What if you want to display multiple photos together on one screen? That's where the Layout feature comes in. It's a built-in collage maker that lets you create clean, grid-based arrangements.

How to Use Layout Mode

1. Start a New Story: Open the Story creator as you normally would.
2. Find the Layout Icon: On the left-hand side toolbar, you'll see a series of icons. One of them looks like a grid - this is the "Layout" tool. Tap it.
3. Choose Your Grid: After tapping the Layout icon, you’ll get a default 2x2 grid. You can tap the "Change Grid" icon (also on the left-hand side, appearing below the main Layout icon) to switch between different formats, like a three-image strip or a four-image grid.
4. Add Your Photos: Now you can populate your grid. You have two options:
   • Tap the gallery icon in the bottom-left to open your camera roll and select a photo for the highlighted grid section.
   • Alternatively, tap the white circle at the bottom-center of the screen to take a new photo directly into a grid section.
   You will need to add a photo for each section of the grid you’ve chosen.
5. Finalize and Edit: Once your grid is full, tap the checkmark button at the bottom. Your collage is now treated as a single image. You can add text, draw on it, or apply stickers over the top of the entire collage.
6. Share to Your Story: Post your custom collage just like any other Story.

Pro-Tip: Layout is perfect for creating mood boards, comparing products side-by-side (e.g., "This or That?"), or showing multiple angles of an item in one clean view.

Method 3: The "Photo Sticker" Technique (for a Freeform Scrapbook Vibe)

For those who want complete creative control, the photo sticker method is the way to go. This technique allows you to layer multiple pictures on top of a single background, creating a custom, freeform collage similar to a physical scrapbook.

Creating with Photo Stickers

1. Set Your Background: Start a new story. You can take a new photo, upload an image from your gallery to serve as the background, or create a solid color background using the "Create" mode (Aa icon).
2. Open the Sticker Tray: Once your background is ready, tap the sticker icon (the smiley face square) at the top of the screen.
3. Find the Photo Sticker: Scroll through the stickers until you find one that's a small, circular preview of your camera roll. It might also look like an icon with a plus sign and a gallery image. Tap it.
4. Select Your First Photo: Your camera roll will open. Choose the first photo you want to add as a layer. It will appear on your Story, and you can now resize it, rotate it, and drag it anywhere you want.
5. Get Creative with Shapes: Once you've placed a photo sticker, you can tap on it to toggle through different shapes, such as a circle, heart, or star. This little trick adds a ton of personality.
6. Repeat the Process: Ready for another photo? Just open the sticker tray again, tap the photo sticker, and select your next image. You can repeat this as many times as you like, layering photos on top of each other to create a rich, dynamic visual narrative.
7. Add Other Elements: Combine your photo stickers with text, GIFs, and drawings to fully customize your design before posting.

Pro-Tip: This method is amazing for weekly recaps, "day in the life" stories, or tutorials where you need to show smaller images to point out specific details on a larger background image.

Best Practices for Impactful Multi-Photo Stories

Knowing how to post multiple photos is just the first step. Here’s how to do it well.

• Maintain a Narrative Flow: If you're using the multi-select method, make sure your photos are in a logical order that tells a mini-story. A random collection of images can feel disjointed.
• Keep Branding Consistent: Use similar filters, text fonts, and colors across the slides or collage elements to create a cohesive brand feel. A consistent visual theme makes your Stories look more professional and recognizable.
• Mix Media Types: Remember that the multi-select feature lets you choose both photos and videos. Interspersing short video clips between photos can make your Story much more dynamic and engaging.
• Don't Be Afraid of Negative Space: Especially when using the photo sticker method, leave some breathing room. Cluttering the screen with too many overlapping elements can overwhelm your audience and make your message unclear.
• Add Engagement Stickers Wisely: On one of your slides in a multi-select series, consider adding a poll, quiz, or question box. This gives your viewers a clear reason to interact instead of passively tapping through.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re using the multi-select feature to tell a sequential story, the Layout tool for a clean grid, or the photo sticker for a creative collage, adding multiple photos to your Instagram Stories is a fantastic way to capture attention and communicate more effectively. Test out each method to see which aligns best with your brand's voice and visual style.

Planning these visually rich stories can transform your content strategy, but it requires organization. That's why we designed the visual calendar in Postbase. We built our platform specifically for today's social media, where formats like Stories and Reels come first. You can drag and drop your content ideas, see your entire story sequence planned out for weeks in advance, and maintain a consistent narrative without the last-minute scramble.