How to Add Highlights on Instagram

Stories vanish after 24 hours, but Highlights let you keep the best of them on your profile forever. Learning how to add highlights on Instagram takes only a minute, and it turns the little circles under your bio into a curated, permanent showcase. This guide covers creating a highlight from a live story or from your archive, setting a custom cover, and getting the order the way you want it.

A Highlight is simply a collection of past stories, grouped and pinned to your profile below your bio. Each one shows as a circular cover with a label. Tap it and your saved stories play just like a normal Story — except they never expire.

Add a highlight from your archive

The most flexible way to build a highlight is from your Story archive, which lets you pull from everything you have posted (as long as archiving is on).

1. Go to your profile and tap the New button — the plus circle in the Highlights row under your bio.
2. Instagram shows your archived stories. Select the ones you want in this highlight.
3. Tap Next, give the highlight a short name (keep it under about 15 characters so it does not get cut off).
4. Choose a cover, then tap Add or Done.

The new highlight now sits on your profile permanently until you remove it.

Add a live story to a highlight

You can also highlight a story while it is still active in the 24-hour window:

1. Open your own active story.
2. Tap the Highlight icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Add it to an existing highlight, or tap New to create a fresh one and name it.

Set a custom cover

A tidy set of covers makes a profile look polished. To change one:

1. Press and hold the highlight, then choose Edit Highlight.
2. Tap Edit Cover.
3. Pick a frame from the stories inside, or upload an image from your phone for a fully custom cover.
4. Save your changes.

Many creators design a matching set of cover icons in a consistent colour or style so the row looks like a clean menu.

Ordering your highlights

Instagram displays highlights with the most recently updated one first, and it does not offer true drag-and-drop reordering. The reliable trick: to push a highlight to the front, add a story to it or re-save it, which bumps it to the leftmost position. Plan your order by updating the ones you want seen first.

For business owners: an always-on menu

For a local Toronto business, Highlights are one of the most underused tools on Instagram. Because they sit permanently at the top of your profile, they act as an always-on menu that answers a new visitor's questions before they even ask. Set up a handful with clear covers:

• Services or Menu — what you actually offer.
• Reviews — screenshots of happy customer feedback and testimonials.
• FAQ — hours, pricing ranges, booking, parking.
• Before & After or Portfolio — proof of your work.
• Location — where to find you in the city.

A visitor who lands on your profile can tap through these in seconds and decide to book. That said, Instagram is one channel. When someone in Toronto searches Google for the service you provide, it is your website and Google Business Profile that need to show up. Highlights convert people who already found you; search visibility is how new customers find you in the first place.

Frequently asked questions