Beautiful Instagram Story Highlights

Have you noticed the nice circles under your favourite Instagram bio’s and want to know how to make them?  Well, you’ve come to the right place because today’s blog post is all about the step by step process of making Story Highlights.

Most images on Instagram are beautiful, and I have to be honest, I love the orderly nature of the platform. Story highlights sit beautifully at the top, don’t they?!

INSTA STORY HIGHLIGHTS

If you’re a keen bean to have these super cool covers, here I will walk you through making a new Instagram Highlight.

How to Make a New Instagram Highlight

1: Tap the button in the bottom-right to go to your profile.

2: Tap the circle with a plus inside to create a ‘New’ highlight then choose which Stories you want in this Highlight.

3: Tap “Next.” before choosing a name for your Highlight.

4: Normally here you would pick out your custom Instagram Highlights cover. Skip over that for now and just tap “Done.”

Congratulations! You’ve made your first Instagram Highlights.

How to Make Custom Instagram Highlights Covers

In order to make custom Instagram Highlights covers, you’ll need access to any free graphic design platform. I love Canva. You can make a free account if you don’t have one already, and get started, or try Pro free for 30 days.

Step 1: Click “Create a design” in the upper-left.

Step 2: Scroll down to “Social Media & Email Headers,” and click on “Etsy Shop Icon.” before you do anything else, it’s worth noting here that you can use any size picture. Its dimensions will change after you upload it as a Story, and again after you select it as your custom Instagram Highlights cover.

Step 3: Choose “ELEMENTS” from the toolbar.

Step 4: Click on “Icons.” You’ll be presented with more icons than you will ever need. You can also search for specific icons from the search bar at the top. You’ll get a mix of free, paid, and premium to choose from. After you choose the icon you want as your custom Instagram Highlights cover, just choose a background colour, and click “Download.” Make sure the icon isn’t so large that parts of it will be lost during Instagram’s circular cropping.

Step 5: Open it on your phone and save it to your camera roll, you will be able to access it here from Instagram.

Step 6: Open Instagram, then from your profile, just tap and hold on the Highlight you want to customize and choose “Edit Highlight.” You’ll land on a screen like this: you’ll see the option to choose which Stories are in or out. Tap “Edit cover” and press the image symbol, this will take you to your camera roll. Select your cover from here and position it perfectly, click “Next.” Just tap “Done” when you’re finished.

Alternative Simple Trick

Add a large circle onto your image, and fill the shape with your design. Then you can add onto one of your story uploads like these and it’s easy to add them to stories! Voila!

Finally

Now that you know how to create custom Instagram Highlights covers, you can get to work. The key is to use your imagination and to make them as eye-catching as possible.

If you would like to take a look at our gorgeous Story Templates, check them out here.