Highlight
Also known as: Story Highlight, Saved Stories
Quick definition
A Highlight is a permanent collection of Instagram Stories saved to a profile, organized into themed groupings displayed below the bio. Highlights extend the lifetime of Stories beyond their 24-hour expiry and serve as a curated 'best of' showcase for new profile visitors.
What is a Highlight?
A Highlight is a permanent collection of Instagram Stories saved to your profile, organized under a custom title and circular cover image. Highlights appear in a horizontal row directly below your bio and above your Feed grid — making them one of the first elements new profile visitors see. Each Highlight can contain unlimited Stories saved over time; new Stories can be added or old ones removed at any moment. Highlights persist until you delete them; they're not subject to the standard 24-hour Story expiry.
Highlights solve a real problem with Stories. Standard Stories disappear after 24 hours, which means viewers who don't catch them in time miss the content forever, and the work-of-creating-Stories doesn't accumulate into a discoverable archive. Highlights let you keep the best Stories visible permanently — a 'greatest hits' showcase visible on the profile.
What to put in Highlights
Five high-leverage uses. (1) Brand introduction — 'About', 'Meet the team', 'Our story' — gives new visitors instant context. (2) Product or service categories — 'Services', 'Pricing', 'Portfolio' — surfaces business information without requiring viewers to scroll the Feed. (3) Customer testimonials — preserve UGC and reviews that originally appeared in Stories. (4) FAQ — answer common questions visually with multi-Story sequences. (5) Series content — group Stories from a campaign or recurring theme ('Tutorial Tuesdays', 'Behind the Scenes').
Highlights are also strong for evergreen content — content that's still valuable a year later. A great tutorial Story today disappears in 24 hours; saved to a Highlight, it's discoverable to every new visitor for as long as you keep the Highlight live.
Highlight design and naming
Two design dimensions. (1) Cover image — the circular thumbnail that appears in the row. Most brands use custom-designed covers (consistent color palette, simple icons) rather than auto-generated thumbnails. Strong cover design dramatically increases tap-through rate. (2) Name — the title shown below each cover. Short, scannable names ('Press', 'Tutorials', 'Reviews') outperform long titles ('Our Latest Press Coverage'). Highlight names cap at ~16 characters before truncation on mobile; design for that limit.
Frequently asked questions
How many Stories can I put in one Highlight?+
Unlimited — Instagram doesn't cap the count. Practically, 10-30 Stories per Highlight is the sweet spot; longer Highlights become tedious to scroll. For longer content, split into multiple themed Highlights.
Can I add Stories to a Highlight after the 24-hour Story expiry?+
Yes. You can add expired Stories to a Highlight at any point if they're still in your Story Archive (default on for Business accounts). The Story Archive preserves all expired Stories; from there you can promote any to a Highlight.
Do Highlights expire?+
No — Highlights are permanent until you delete them or remove the contained Stories. They survive Instagram's 24-hour Story expiry by design.
Can I create Highlights via API?+
Limited. Most scheduling APIs let you publish Stories programmatically, but creating and managing Highlights typically requires the native app. Instagram's Graph API doesn't expose Highlight creation publicly. For now, Highlights are mostly a manual / native-UI feature.
Stories scheduling that feeds your Highlights
Schedule Stories via CodivUpload, then pin the best ones to Highlights manually. The combination keeps your profile fresh + permanent showcase up to date.
Try Story schedulingRelated glossary terms