Instagram Story Ideas

Takeaways

Stories are a fun way to share the everyday moments about what you’re up to and what you’re into with friends. Whether you’re reliving a recent adventure, sharing a hot take or new favorite song, or sharing some real talk with a behind-the-scenes into your day-to-day, Stories is the place to capture the small and big moments. Explore these Instagram story ideas to keep your content fresh and captivating, and let your imagination lead the way! 

Reminisce on a Weekend Adventure

Capturing memories from your weekend or weeknight adventure is easy with Stories. The frames sticker lets you put a nostalgic spin on specific moments, like a breathtaking view or a cozy cafè, and highlights it in a creative way.  

But sometimes just one photo doesn’t capture the vibe. The photo sticker lets you add multiple photos to the same story, ensuring no memory goes untold. Whether it’s candid moments with friends or picturesque landscapes, the gallery sticker is perfect for creating a visual narrative.

For a more structured look, the layout feature does the trick. Align multiple photos within a single frame using the various layout options to display your adventure with up to 6 photos in a grid.

Share Your POV

Stories are not just for photos. Using Create mode, start with words to capture your thoughts or feelings. Layer in photos, music, GIFs, and stickers to add more context to your caption.

Begin with a hot take, an interesting observation, or a question that invites friends to share their thoughts. For example, you can repost a viral meme and add your own caption to share an inside joke.

You can also use interactive features like polls or questions to more proactively invite your friends to reach out.

All About the Music

Stories are one of the best places for sharing the latest track you can’t get out of your head or an old favorite that just fits your Friday mood. Tap the ‘Music’ button in the toolbar above your Stories photo gallery to create a story that’s all about the music from a vast library of songs. Your story will feature a vinyl design that adds creativity and flair, but you can also tap the vinyl design to choose a different visual style.  

This unique vinyl design spins on your story, inviting your friends to interact by ‘scratching’ the vinyl, producing a fun scratch noise. Dive into the world of music on Instagram and let your stories sing!

Be Part of a Trend

Join in with friends through trending templates. With the ‘Add Yours’ feature, you can discover popular templates making waves locally and globally and add your own unique spin on them, then invite friends to do the same.  

To access trending Add Yours in Stories: Navigate to the ‘Templates’ button in the toolbar above your Stories photo gallery. Scroll through top trending Add Yours — whether it’s a “get to know me” quiz, a challenge to find “something red” in your gallery, or a dump of your past month. 

• Navigate to the ‘Templates’ button in the toolbar above your Stories photo gallery.

• Scroll through top trending Add Yours — whether it’s a “get to know me” quiz, a challenge to find “something red” in your gallery, or a dump of your past month.

Make It Yours with the Draw Tool

Unleash your creativity with Instagram’s draw tool, adding a personal touch to your Stories. With a variety of brush aesthetics, add a fun touch to make friends smile by drawing attention to specific parts of your story.  

Add a hand-drawn heart to your vacation photo or sketch a quirky doodle to highlight your thoughts. The draw tool allows you to integrate artistic elements seamlessly, giving friends more insight into what’s on your mind.

Next time you share a moment, reach for the draw tool to make it yours.

Text Tool Hacks

An image may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes it’s not quite enough to capture your mood. Did you know there are hacks to take your text game to the next level? One trick is unlocking special heart symbols using the text tool. Type ‘- 3’ after selecting a specific font and it’ll transform plain text into styled hearts that match the font style.  

Even if you’re simply resharing a funny Reel or a Thread you found interesting, the text tool helps provide a bit more context to friends about what’s on your mind.

Color Picker Hack

Make any text or outline perfectly match with your story vibe using the color picker. The droplet icon allows you to select a specific color from anywhere in your photo, ensuring text, backgrounds, and other elements are coordinated.  

To unlock the color picker, take a photo or upload an image to your story. In editing mode, tap the text tool or any element that allows color selection. Locate the droplet icon and tap it to activate the color picker. Move your finger across the photo to sample the exact hue you want, whether it’s a vibrant shade from a sunset, a soft pastel from a flower, or a deep tone from your OOTD.

Cutouts

Create fun memes with friends using the cutout sticker in Stories. Cutouts are a great way to share your humor and express your creativity. To create a cutout, simply select a photo when creating a story and go to the sticker sheet and tap “cutout”. The tool will automatically select a subject from the photo, but you can also tap “select manually” to make it yourself.  

You can reuse these cutouts in future stories, creating a series of memes based on different themes like holidays, movie nights, or inside jokes.