Instagram Stories allow you to share multiple videos and photos taken throughout the day, complete with overlays of doodles and stickers, like Snapchat Stories. This slideshow reel of photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours, allowing you to share moments of your day without having to keep them on your Instagram Profile.

If you want to repopulate your Instagram story reel, just take more videos and photos and continue to broadcast them. You can also add an Intsgram Story as a highlight if you want them to remain on your profile for longer than the 24 hours.

Here's everything you need to know about Instagram Stories.

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Instagram

How does Instagram Stories work?

Here's a basic run down of how Instagram Stories work, but we have a full Instagram Stories tips and tricks that will give you a more detailed overview if there is something specfic you want to know how to do.

Posting

Tap the "+" button in the top right of your screen and tap on "Story" in the bottom right, or swipe right from anywhere in your Instagram Feed.

Then, tap or long press the record button at the bottom to take a photo or video, respectively. You can also tap Boomerang in the tool bar on the left to take burst photos that loop forward or backward, or tap the arrow on the tool bar to select the hands-free mode, as well as find other features, such as Superzoom.

Once done, tap the doodle, text, or sticker icons at the top of your screen to add effects. Stickers can include location information, polls and songs. 

Once you're finished editing, you can save your creation to your phone or tap the "Send to" in the bottom right of your screen to share it to your story. Photos and videos you share to your story disappear from the feed and your profile after 24 hours.

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Instagram

Hide your story from someone

If you don't want someone to see your story, you can hide your story from them. Just tap the profile icon in the bottom right of the Instagram app to access your profile > Tap the three lines in the top right > Settings > Privacy > Story > Hide Story From > Select the people you'd like to hide your story from.

Viewing

When you post a photo or video to your story, it appears on your profile (a colourful ring will appear around your profile picture, and people can tap it to see your story) and at the top of the Instagram feed (your profile picture will appear in a row at the top of your followers' feeds, and they can tap it to see your story).

Stories shared publicly may also appear in the Search & Explore tabs.

Additionally, if you've added a hashtag, location, or location-based sticker, it may also appear on hashtag or location pages.

Replying

You can reply to stories with a message reply or a quick reply emoji by tapping on the "Send Message" box at the bottom of the story you are watching. 

Your friend will get your response in their Direct message inbox, along with the thumbnail of the original story.

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Instagram

What else can Instagram Stories do?

  • Add effects: Like Snapchat, you can add doodles, text, stickers, live face filters, and geostickers to your story.
  • Add music: There's also the ability to add songs directly to your Stories.
  • See who's watching your story: When watching your own story, swipe up to see who's watched each photo and video.
  • Make your story private: If your account is set to private, your story will only be visible to your followers. You can also hide your entire story from anyone you don't want to see it, even if they follow you.
  • Post your story to your profile: Your Instagram Story by default won't appear on your profile grid or in feed, but you can choose to feature a particular part of your story by posting it on your profile or you can add it as a Highlight.

Want to know more?

Instagram's Help Center has several step-by-step guides that explain everything you need to know.

You can also check out Instagram's blog post for more details