Instagram Stories, since its introduction in 2016, have become one of the most popular and used features of the platform and an effective alternative for users looking to gain more Instagram likes Canadafor their posts and can be excellent for driving traffic to your website with the Swipe Up feature.

Featured stories are those selected by the user, which do not expire after 24 hours and remain on their profile. Instagram allows you to create outstanding stories using images, photos or videos from your mobile gallery, but you must keep it in your stories.

Even featured stories have become an effective tool for brands, companies and businesses of any kind to increase the reach and impressions of their content on the platform.

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How to add a Highlight from your mobile gallery

You can post photos and videos to your featured stories from your smart phone roll. You can restrict users from seeing your story while it’s active, but you must include it in your featured stories first. This is what you can do:

1.     Open the reel of your mobile.

2.   Choose the photos or videos you want to add to your featured stories.

3.   Press the share button and search for Instagram among the options.

4.   If Instagram is not among the first options, press “More”, and then choose Instagram from the available options.

5.   Press “Stories” between the different types of publication.

6.   Now see your featured stories in the Instagram app.

7.    Under your profile, click “New”.

8.   Choose the photos and videos you want in your highlights and add a title.

9.   Finally, add a title

For this process to work, you must do it from the Instagram mobile application and publish your story before adding it to your highlights.

How to add a featured story on Instagram

You can easily post a featured story, but you need to add it to your stories first.

1.     Open the app and go to the stories section.

2.   Click “New” in the circle below your bio and choose from the stories already published.

3.   Add the name of the featured story, choose a cover, and hit “Add.”

4.   You can remove it from your featured stories by going to the story and pressing the three dots in the lower right corner of the screen.

5.   Then you just have to press “Remove from featured stories.”

Add a featured story without creating an Instagram story

The potential of featured stories is clear as long as you know how to take advantage of them however there is no direct way to create a featured story without having it published as a regular story before. But there is a trick you can try. Limit all of your followers so they can’t see your stories and then post a story, just like you normally would. After 24 hours, once the story has expired, you can return access to your stories to all your followers. If we do it step by step you would have to do the following:

1.  Put your private account

If you have a public profile and want to post a featured story without it appearing in your stories, you must make your account private for at least 24 hours. If you already have a private account you can skip this step.

2.  Change the settings of your stories

If you want to prevent your followers from seeing your story, you can limit access to your story through the application’s privacy settings. Enter Settings – Privacy and finally the History section. Go to “Hide history”, when you enter you will see a list of all your followers with a circle to one side. Select all the users you want to hide your story from. When finished, press “Done” in the upper right corner of the screen.

3.  Upload your story

Now you just have to publish your story, as you normally would and how you want it to appear in your featured stories. If you have blocked all your followers and you have your private account, no one will be able to see it.

4.  Add the story to your featured stories

Finally, go to your story and press the “Featured” button, identified with a heart icon enclosed in a dotted circle.

5.  Unblock users so they can see your stories again

24 hours after posting your story and adding it to your featured stories, you can unblock your followers and give them access to your stories again. This way, your featured story will be visible on your profile.

How to Add a Cover to Your Featured Stories Without Publishing an Instagram Story

By adding a featured story you can change the cover without adding it to your stories. The application even allows you to upload a photo from your mobile gallery. To do so, follow these steps.

·      Open the application and go to your Instagram profile.

·      Long-press on the featured story whose cover you want to change and hit “Edit” from the pop-up menu.

·      You can use an existing story as a cover. If you wish, you can upload a photo from your gallery by clicking “Edit cover” and then pressing the gallery button, below the cover image you currently have.

·      On your reel, choose the image you want for the cover. Adjust it within the circle as you prefer and press “Done”.

It’s quite common for an Instagram user to want to add a featured story without having to post a story for 24 hours, but it’s still important to make it stand out. You can use some templates for Instagram Stories to create impressive highlight stories.

FAQS

·      How can I use featured stories?

It is very simple! Select your best Instagram Stories and you can select them to highlight them, grouping them into different categories as you prefer.

·      What’s the advantage of featured stories?

The biggest advantage of featured stories is that they work like a cover letter and you can use it however you like without cluttering up the permanent posts in your feed.

·      Should I use the featured stories?

It always depends on the type of account you have. However, featured stories allow you to show a bit of the best of your content to encourage users who visit your profile to follow you.