What Instagram Highlights are and why you'd use them
Instagram Highlights are collections of Stories you pin to your profile permanently, displayed as circular icons below your bio. Unlike regular Stories that disappear after 24 hours, Highlights stay visible until you delete them. They let you organize and showcase Stories by topic — product launches, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes content, frequently asked questions — so people visiting your profile can browse them at any time.
Highlights serve a practical purpose: they extend the life of content you spent time creating, and they give visitors a quick sense of what your account is about without scrolling through your feed. For business accounts especially, Highlights can reduce repetitive questions by housing FAQs or product information in one place.
You can create up to 100 Highlights per account, though most people use far fewer. Each Highlight can hold multiple Stories, and you can add Stories to Highlights after they've already disappeared from your main Story feed.
Key Takeaways
- Highlights are permanent collections of Stories pinned below your bio, organized by topic, that stay on your profile indefinitely.
- You create a Highlight by opening a Story, tapping the heart icon to save it, then selecting "Add to Highlights" and choosing a new or existing Highlight.
- You can add Stories to Highlights after they've expired from your main feed, and you can edit Highlight covers to use custom images or text.
- Highlights appear in the order you create them, and you can rearrange, rename, or delete them anytime from your profile settings.
- Private accounts can use Highlights, but only followers can see them; business accounts benefit most from Highlights organized by product, service type, or customer concern.
How to save a Story to a Highlight while it's still live
The fastest way to create a Highlight is to save a Story while it's still active on your profile. Open the Story you want to save, then tap the heart icon at the bottom left of the screen. A menu appears asking where you want to save it.
Tap "Add to Highlights." A new screen shows your existing Highlights (if any) and an option to create a new one. If you're creating your first Highlight, tap "Create New" and give it a name — something like "Products," "FAQs," or "Team." Once you name it, that Highlight appears on your profile immediately as a circular icon below your bio, and the Story you just saved is inside it.
You can add multiple Stories to the same Highlight. Each time you save a Story and choose an existing Highlight, that Story gets added to the collection. The Stories appear in the order you added them, with the most recent at the end.
Adding Stories to Highlights after they've expired
You don't have to save a Story to a Highlight while it's live. If you missed a Story that already disappeared from your feed, you can still add it to a Highlight later. Go to your profile, tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top right, and select "Archive." Your archived Stories appear there, organized by date.
Find the Story you want to add, tap it to open it, then tap the three dots in the top right corner. Select "Add to Highlights" and choose which Highlight it belongs in. If you don't see an Archive option, your account may not have archiving turned on — you can enable it in Settings under "Story" settings.
This feature is useful if you realize after 24 hours that a Story deserves a permanent home, or if you want to curate Stories from weeks or months ago into a themed collection.
Customizing Highlight covers and names
By default, each Highlight shows a preview of the first Story in it as its cover image. You can change this to make your Highlights more visually cohesive or easier to scan. Go to your profile, long-press the Highlight you want to edit, and tap "Edit Highlight."
You have two options: use a different Story from within that Highlight as the cover, or upload a custom image from your phone. Custom covers let you add text, colors, or branded graphics that match your account's style. Many people create simple covers with white text on a solid color background — for example, a teal circle with white text saying "FAQ" or "New Drops."
You can also rename a Highlight from this menu. Tap the name field and type a new one. Names are visible when someone hovers over or taps the Highlight, so use clear, descriptive labels that tell visitors what they'll find inside.
Organizing and reordering your Highlights
Highlights appear on your profile in the order you created them, left to right. If you want to rearrange them, go to your profile and long-press any Highlight. Tap "Edit Highlight," then look for a reorder option — on most devices, you can drag the Highlight to a new position. Alternatively, tap and hold the Highlight icon itself and drag it left or right to move it.
Consider putting your most important Highlights first — if you have a "Products" Highlight and a "Behind the Scenes" Highlight, put Products first since visitors see it immediately. You can also delete a Highlight by long-pressing it and selecting "Delete." Deleting a Highlight removes it from your profile but does not delete the Stories inside it; they stay in your Archive.
If you have many Highlights, group related ones together. For example, if you run a service business, you might organize by service type: "Haircuts," "Color," "Styling." This makes it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for.
Highlights on private accounts and business accounts
If your account is private, only your followers can see your Highlights. Non-followers can see your profile and bio, but Highlights remain hidden until they follow you. This is useful if you want to share internal updates or sensitive information with followers only.
Business accounts have the same Highlight features as personal accounts, but they benefit most from strategic use. A restaurant might create Highlights for "Menu," "Events," and "Reviews." A freelancer might use "Portfolio," "Testimonials," and "Process." Business accounts can also see limited analytics on Highlights — though Instagram does not show detailed view counts, you can see which Highlights get tapped most often through your Insights.
If you switch from a personal to a business account, your existing Highlights stay in place. The reverse is also true: switching to personal does not delete Highlights, though they become visible only to followers.
Common issues and troubleshooting
If you don't see the heart icon when viewing a Story, make sure you're viewing your own Story, not someone else's. You can only save your own Stories to Highlights. If the heart icon appears but tapping it does nothing, try closing and reopening the Instagram app.
If a Highlight disappears from your profile, check that you haven't accidentally deleted it. Go to your profile, long-press the area where it was, and see if a delete confirmation appears. If you deleted it by mistake, the Highlight is gone, but the Stories inside are still in your Archive and can be added to a new Highlight.
If you're trying to add a very old Story to a Highlight and can't find it in your Archive, it may have been permanently deleted. Instagram keeps archived Stories for a limited time, though the exact retention period is not publicly specified. If a Story is no longer in your Archive, you cannot add it to a Highlight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can people see who viewed my Highlights?
No. Unlike regular Stories, Highlights do not show you a list of who viewed them. You can see that a Highlight was tapped (on business accounts, through limited Insights data), but you cannot see individual viewer names or counts the way you can with active Stories.
What happens to a Highlight if I delete my account?
If you delete your Instagram account, all Highlights and the Stories in them are permanently deleted along with it. If you deactivate your account temporarily instead, Highlights are hidden while the account is deactivated and reappear if you reactivate.
Can I add someone else's Story to my Highlights?
No. You can only add your own Stories to Highlights. You cannot save or repost another person's Story directly to your Highlights, though you can screenshot it and create a new Story with that image, then add that to a Highlight.
Do Highlights count toward my Story limit?
No. Stories have no hard limit — you can post as many as you want per day. Highlights are separate and do not affect how many Stories you can post. You can create up to 100 Highlights per account.
Can I see Highlights on Instagram from a web browser?
Yes. When you visit someone's profile on Instagram.com, their Highlights appear below their bio just as they do on mobile. You can tap a Highlight to view the Stories inside, though you cannot create or edit Highlights from a web browser — that requires the mobile app.