22 Instagram Story Hacks You Need to Know
Looking to spice up your Instagram Stories this year? From clever design tricks to engaging strategies, we’ve got all the Instagram Story hacks you’ll need for 2024.
Posted 6 months ago
Written by
Mackenzie TaylorPosted 6 months ago
When it comes to your Instagram Stories, making sure people are actually interested and want to view your stories is an absolute must. Right? So how do you spice up your stories a bit so they’re not the same thing each time? Well, we’ve got some Story hacks for you to boost your Instagram marketing! From clever design tricks to engaging strategies, we’ve got all the Instagram Story hacks you’ll need for 2024.
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How to create a boomerang from a live photo
Yes, you can create a boomerang from a live photo (insert your mind being blown).
All you have to do is open Instagram Stories, swipe up, and pick a live photo from your camera roll (there will be a boomerang symbol on the photo). Once you’ve selected your photo, press on the photo until the word “Boomerang” appears on the screen. Voila! You now have a boomerang from a live photo you took.
Easy, simple, and fun.
How to change your Instagram Story background
So the photo you shared from IG has a weird color background that you don’t like? Or maybe you want to change the background just because (I get it!). Try this little Instagram Story hack: Click the draw tool at the top of the Story and then select a color. Once you’ve selected your color, press and hold the screen for a few seconds until the background fills with the color of your choice.
Another way you can step up your Instagram story game with background color is by sharing a photo and filling up the entire story with color. Okay, so what’s the point of hiding the photo? Well, take the eraser tool and create a “scratch card” effect to reveal only PART of your image. Tell people to “tap” to reveal the whole photo, and make the next story the entire photo.
How to access more colors on Instagram story
If you’re not in love with the default color options Instagram offers at the bottom of the Instagram Story, there’s actually a hack to access every color you might want.
Open your Instagram Stories and select the draw tool. Tap and hold any of the default colors at the bottom of the screen and a color slider will appear. You can then swipe your finger along with the slider and select the color of your choice!
How to make your Instagram Story font rainbow-themed
If you want to add some fun detailing to your font, make it rainbow! This is so easy and quick to do.
Type out a message on your story, tap on the text, and tap “select all” to highlight the text. While the text is highlighted, press and hold one finger down on the color palette tool at the bottom of your screen to open the entire color wheel.
With one finger held down on the color slider and one on the highlighted text, begin to drag BOTH fingers toward the left side of your screen at the same time.
Your text will begin to change color as you drag your finger across the color palette!
How to use an image as your Instagram story
Instead of having color as your background on Instagram Story, you can add an image as your background!
First, select the post you want to share on your IG Story and select “add post to your story.” You will then tap the sticker button or swipe up to open your sticker options. Select the “Add from Camera Roll” sticker and select the photo you want to use as your story background.
Move the feed post to one side of your Instagram Story screen and expand the added photo using two fingers (as if you’re pinching your screen). While expanding your background photo, tap and hold the original feed post using your thumb. This will bring it to the front of the screen.
How to add your brand’s font to your Instagram stories
Make your stories more on-brand for your account by adding a custom font! Download the GoDaddy Studio mobile app and AirDrop your font’s .OFT file to your phone. Select Over when the “open with” menu pops up.
Once you’ve got your custom font added, you can design stories in the app or you can write a line of text on a transparent background, save it to your camera roll, and then add it to your stories via “Add from camera roll” sticker.
How to create a 3D effect with the eraser tool
If you didn’t know you could make some incredibly cool effects with the eraser tool, we’re here to tell you that you can! Upload the photo of your choice and use the draw tool to draw an effect over the image.
Use the eraser tool to remove some of the zig-zag to create a 3D effect around an object or a random portion of the photo!
How to add multiple photos to your Instagram story
Want to add more than one photo to your Instagram Story without sharing a photo from your feed? To start, open your Story and select a photo from your camera roll. You’ll then either click the Instagram story sticker icon or swipe up to see all the options for stickers. Click the “Add from Camera Roll” sticker, select any photo from your camera roll, change the size, and place it wherever you’d like on your story!
You can also change the shape of the image by tapping the image and selecting from a star, rectangle, circle, and more.
If you have an iPhone, there’s also another sneaky way to add an additional photo to your Story. Open a photo from your camera roll and click the “export” button. Click “copy” and go to your Instagram Story.
On your story, tap the screen until the “paste” option appears. Paste the photo and move it to wherever you’d like on the Story!
How to pin stickers, emojis, text, and gifs to your Instagram Stories
One of our favorite features is pinning a sticker, GIF, text, and emoji in our Story for it to appear at the perfect moment. If you’re trying to figure out how to do that, let us walk you through it.
Record or upload your video then add whatever some text, a GIF, sticker, or emoji to your Story. Tap and hold the creative element that you added. A slider bar will appear at the bottom of the screen for you to scroll through the video and find where you want to pin the item.
Easy and simple!
How to add music to your Instagram Stories
Want to add some excitement and entertainment to your Stories? Add music! Open the Instagram Stories camera and take or upload a photo or video. Press the music sticker at the top of the screen.
From there, a library of music will pop up and you can search and select whatever song you think matches the aesthetic of your photo or video.
Once you’ve selected your song, you can choose which section of the song you’d like to play (the clip will only be 15 seconds long). You can also customize what the sticker for the song looks like by tapping it before publishing. You can choose from various album cover layouts or the lyrics in a variety of fonts.
FYI: If you have a business account, you will have a limited selection of music due to Instagram’s licensing agreement.
How to search for all the Instagram filters
#ICYMI: Instagram has loads of filters that you can play around with on their app. If you’re wondering where you can find these, open up your camera and swipe all the way to the end, and select “Browse Effects.”
Here you’ll find hundreds of fun effects that will change your photos and videos.
How to automatically add closed caption
Adding closed captions to your Story is extremely important (you can find out all about why accessibility matters on Instagram here), so how do you actually do it? Thanks to the new Captions sticker, it’s SO easy to automatically add closed captions to your Stories.
Upload your video on your Story and click the “sticker” icon or swipe up to see all the sticker options. Select the “Captions” sticker, and from here you can choose from four different text formats, move the text around the screen, and even change the color!
From there, your captions will be generated on your Instagram Story. Be sure to read back the captions and edit whenever Instagram made a mistake (it does happen!). Also, if your video is more than one Story long, you’ll need to add the caption sticker to each Story where you’re talking.
How to schedule your Instagram Stories
One of the best new features that Facebook (Instagram’s parent company) recently released? Instagram Story scheduling! This is one of our favorite Instagram Story hacks. If you have Facebook Business Suite, you can plan and schedule out all of your Instagram Stories so you don’t have to worry about something not going live if you’re having a busy workday. Honestly, a game-changer.
How to create a grid of photos
There are a few fun built-in tools in Instagram Stories already, and one of them is the Grid feature. For those times when you want to show yourself, your ‘fit, your food, and the sky (sorry, just thinking about myself here), the Grid option is made for you.
On the left-hand side of the screen, scroll to find the layout tool. Your screen will instantly be divided into quadrants where you can add a photo to the first square by swiping up to select a photo from your camera roll or take a new photo from your phone. You’ll be able to repeat this for each section.
If you’d like to switch up the layout of the grid, you can do this by clicking the change grid icon on the left-hand side of the screen.
How to access more GIFs
Did you know there are thousands of GIFs you can choose from to add to your Instagram Story? If you’re looking for some cute GIFs, check out our blog post on words to search for when it comes to finding the perfect GIF for your Story.
Another way you can add a GIF to your Story is by using the “Create” mode. Instagram’s-own GIPHY has a huge selection of a variety of GIFs you can choose from and even create a GIF Background for your Story! To create a GIF background, click the letters icon on the left-hand side of the Instagram Stories camera screen, and scroll across to the GIF tab.
Search for whatever kind of GIF your little heart desires! You can either stack them on top of each other or display them in full length, depending on their aspect ratio.
This is a fun way to share and connect with your audience if you don’t have enough original content for your week.
How to add a layer of translucent color to a video or photo
Want to add a fun little translucent effect over your Story? Upload or shoot your video or photo. Click the draw tool at the top of the screen and select the highlighter icon. Choose whichever color is your favorite (we’re partial to a light blue) and tap and hold the photo until a layer of translucent color appears over the top of the photo.
How to use a green screen in your Instagram Stories
Did you know you can create a green screen effect on your Instagram Story? It’s true!
Scroll right through the filters at the bottom of the screen to get to the magnifying glass. Search “green screen” and select Instagram’s green screen filter. From there, click “add media” to choose your background video or photo from your phone’s image gallery.
You can take a picture or make a fun video in from of the backdrop!
How to add custom stickers to your Instagram Stories
One of Instagram’s newest features is being able to add custom stickers to your Stories. There is a very simple way to do this!
Start creating a Story and open the “sticker” option. From the drop-down, select the option that says “cutouts.”
From there, choose an image from your camera roll and Instagram will make it into a sticker that you can stick anywhere on your Story!
How to use the dual camera on Instagram Stories
Yes, Instagram did steal this idea from BeReal! You can do dual camera angles on Instagram Stories. All you have to do is start creating a Story. On the right-hand side, select “dual” for camera mode.
From here, your camera will focus on both what’s in front of you and your reaction!
How to auto-schedule your Instagram Stories
If you’re anything like us, you forget to post your Instagram Stories until the last minute and scramble to try and post something when you’re out with friends. Now on Flick, you can auto-schedule all of your Instagram Stories in advance so you don’t miss a single post!
- All you have to do is log in to your Flick account
- Click on “Scheduling” on the left-hand side of the screen
- To upload your Story, click on “New Post”
- Make sure you’re only uploading to Instagram, and click “Story”
- Upload your content or select content from your media library
- Select the date and time you want the Story to post
- Click “Schedule” and you’re done!
Start your free 7-day trial with Flick to get started on scheduling your Stories in advance!
We hope these tips, tricks, and hacks get you excited about creating Instagram Stories again and help you with engaging your audience in your day-to-day life. If you have any other tricks you think we should know about, let us know over on our Instagram! We love having new tricks to learn.
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