Chapter 7
IN THIS CHAPTER
Finding stories to view and interact with
Planning your stories
Understanding the basics of creating an Instagram story
Using camera effects
Saving your stories and finding them in your archives
In this chapter, we explain the history of Instagram stories, where to watch them, how to watch them, and their specifications for images and videos. We also go into more detail about how you can plan out the stories you share (if you intend on planning); deciding what to share; and exactly how to upload photos, videos, and images to your stories. We also discuss camera effects and how to save and access your stories after you’ve archived them.
Stories are meant to be quick little windows into your day. They can be original photos or videos or can be posts or Reels shared from another user’s account. Stories expire within 24 hours, so most users don’t put hours of time designing them or creating the perfect video for them.
Instagram stories are located in a bar at the top of your newsfeed and are represented by a multicolored ring around the profile picture of the story’s creator, as shown in Figure 7-1. Tap the profile picture, and the story opens full-screen for you to watch.
New stories (personalized for you based on who you follow) are shown first. By scrolling to the left, you can see all stories that the people you follow have published in the last 24 hours. The story vanishes 24 hours after it was posted.
Instagram stories are also accessible from the top left of a person’s profile page. If the person has an active story, their profile picture has a multicolored ring around it, as shown in Figure 7-3. You don’t need to be following the person to see their stories, as long as the account isn’t private. Tap the profile picture, and the story opens full-screen for you to watch. After that person’s stories have finished, the stories page closes and you’re returned to their profile page.
If you want to watch a continuing sequence of stories from people you follow, you must access the stories from the top of your Home feed. Instagram always takes you to the content you haven’t seen in that person’s story. For instance, if you’d watched two out of five stories by someone, Instagram would play the third story in the sequence when you came back within the 24-hour window of the post. Each person’s story has white dashes at the top that indicate the number of stories for that person that day. Stories continue to play through each person’s entire sequence and then go directly to the next person you’re following who has a current story until you tap the X to exit (iPhone, as shown in Figure 7-4) or swipe down (Android) from Instagram stories.
The next few sections describe how to interact with the stories you watch. You can find out how to skip the stories you’re not interested in, how to rewatch things you want to see again, how to pause a story, and how to react to a story.
To forward through one story within a person’s full story sequence, simply tap on the right side of the screen. You’ll skip to that person’s next story, unless it’s their last or only story; in that case, you’ll be taken to the next person’s story.
To forward through a person’s entire sequence of stories, swipe left from the right side of the screen. You’ll skip that person’s full set of stories and move on to the next person’s stories.
When you’re finished watching, tap the X at the top right of the screen or swipe down to be returned to your Home screen.
To go back to the last story in the sequence you just watched, tap the left side of the screen to jump back to the previous post. Keep tapping if you want to keep going back.
To go back to a different person’s sequence of stories, swipe right from the left side of the screen until you get back to that person’s stories.
Similar to forwarding, if you’re seeking a certain person’s story, it’s easier to go directly to their profile to watch or scroll through the circles at the top of your Home screen to find that person.
When you’re finished watching, tap the X at the top right of the screen or swipe down to be returned to your Home screen.
Stories tend to whip by pretty fast, and sometimes people add lots of text or talk really fast to squeeze a lot of info in. Lucky for you, there is a way to pause a story so you can take it all in. To pause a story, just tap and hold anywhere on the screen, and the story remains frozen until you let go.
Reactions to stories now include likes, reactions, or direct messages.
To like a story, simply tap the heart on the bottom right of the screen. The story creator will be notified.
To send a direct message in response to a story, follow these steps:
Tap the Send Message area at the bottom of the screen.
Quick Reactions (emojis) and a keyboard appear, as shown in Figure 7-5.
If you’ve watched a few Instagram Stories, you’ve probably noticed that they’re all in vertical or portrait mode, and videos are in short sequences. Videos and photos in stories work best if they are in the following formats:
Accessing the story camera is easy but not always obvious. There are a few methods for accessing the camera:
When you’re on the story creation page, the camera is available for taking photos or videos via the white button. Tap for photos; hold for videos for up to one minute. We provide details on what to share and how to add bells and whistles to your photos or videos in the next sections. Note: If you record a video longer than 15 seconds (up to one minute), it will be cut into individual video segments of 15 seconds when you upload it.
If you’re using Instagram stories strictly for personal use, you may prefer to publish things on the fly as they happen rather than planning them. However, many businesses, brands, and influencers use stories in a much more strategic way to truly, well, tell a story.
Instagram stories were designed to be a looser, less perfect part of Instagram. Many Instagrammers agonize over choosing the right photo or caption for their profile page so their aesthetic is flawless. Instagram stories allow those users to offer a less polished version of themselves and a glimpse into their everyday lives that automatically goes away in 24 hours. In this section, we detail some of the common ways people use Instagram stories.
You may want to share
To showcase who you really are, you consider trying the following:
To get started creating a photo story, follow these steps:
From your newsfeed (home screen), swipe right or tap the + sign; then tap Story at the top right of the screen.
You can also tap your profile picture with the blue plus sign in the row of stories at the top of your screen.
Make sure the setting at the bottom of the screen is Story, as shown in Figure 7-9.
Take a photo.
To take a photo, hold the phone vertically and tap the white circle.
If you want the phone in selfie mode (camera facing you versus away from you), tap the two arrows located to the bottom right of the white circle before you tap the white circle. You can also double tap anywhere on the screen to switch the camera back and forth between the front- and rear-facing cameras.
A face filter is an app that applies a filter over your face using the camera, making you look, for example, like a dog, a rock star, or just bathed in a warm glow. Here’s how to take a photo with a face filter:
Put the camera in selfie mode by tapping the arrows to the bottom right of the white circle.
Some filters can be used in rear-facing mode to add a filter, color, or lighting element.
Scroll to the left or right of the white circle to see different filters.
If you scroll all the way to the left, you can search other filters. Instagram often adds new filters seasonally or when there are big events like the Super Bowl or the Grammys.
To apply a filter, scroll the filter you want to use over the white button and it will show you what you’ll look like using that filter as shown in Figure 7-10.
To change filters, simply scroll to the next one.
You may prefer to upload a photo stored on your camera roll instead of capturing it in the Instagram app.
Follow these steps to upload an existing photo to your story:
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen or tap the box with a small photo thumbnail at the bottom left.
Thumbnails of all available photos and videos are displayed at the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 7-11.
Tap the photo you’d like to post, or tap Select to choose up to ten photos.
Be sure to select them in the order you’d like them to appear in your story.
Video can definitely enhance your story, and it’s always fun to include. A standard story video is only 15 seconds long, but in this section, we show you how to film up to a minute in length.
Filming a video within stories is very similar to taking a photo within stories. The main difference is holding down the button for video versus tapping it for a photo. Here are complete instructions for filming a video within stories:
Swipe right from the newsfeed or tap the + sign at the top right of the newsfeed, and tap Story to access your Instagram story.
You can also tap your profile picture with the blue plus sign in the row of stories at the top of your screen.
Make sure the setting at the bottom of the screen is on Story, as shown earlier in this chapter (refer to Figure 7-9).
Take a video.
To take a video, hold the phone vertically and hold the white circle. On the iPhone, you see a red line form around the circle that lets you know how much time you have left within your available 60 seconds. On Android, you see a purple line that shifts to orange and yellow.
If you want the phone in selfie mode (with the camera facing you instead of away from you), tap the two arrows located to the bottom right of the white circle before you tap the white circle.
The camera saves the first 15 seconds in a thumbnail that shows directly above the white circle. It may allow you to film more than 1 minute, but it only allows you to post the four 15-second segments to total 1 minute.
When you’re done filming, release the white circle.
The video thumbnails move down to the lower left of the screen, as shown in Figure 7-12.
To upload all segments of the video, tap the arrow at the bottom right of the screen.
You can then choose to share it to Your Story, share it with Close Friends, or DM someone.
Instagram stories pack a lot into their little piece of the Insta-world. Their camera has many added features to add fun and drama to your stories. In this section, we offer an overview of the different camera options.
Create is already loaded automatically within stories and allows you to type a message in text or use some of the other fun features like those shown in Figure 7-13.
Follow these steps to use Create for a story:
Tip: Refer to the next chapter to see more fun ways to add GIFs, stickers, and more to your story.
Boomerang is a feature that takes a burst of photos and creates a looping backward and forward video clip from them. An action such as twirling a pencil or blowing a bubble becomes more exciting when played in a loop.
Follow these steps to use Boomerang:
To switch from forward-facing video mode to selfie video mode and back, tap the arrows at the bottom right of the screen.
You can also use Boomerang with one of the face filters, as described in the earlier section “Adding a Story Photo.”
Tap the white circle with the Boomerang logo as shown in Figure 7-14.
You don’t need to hold down the white button as you would for video. The app is actually taking several pictures in a rapid burst.
The Layout feature lets you choose from several grid options to upload more than one photo for a story. Here’s how to create a Layout story:
To film a video without the hassle of holding down the button the entire time, use the Hands-Free setting (the circle icon with a square inside of it) located on the left side of your story screen. You may need to tap the arrow on the left side of the screen to reveal the icon if it’s not showing for you already. Once you tap the Hands-Free icon, you can record a video by tapping the white circle with the colorful circle inside. Tap the circle again to stop. If you don’t tap it again, Hands-Free will keep filming a longer video, but it will only allow four 15-second segments to post as a “stitched together” video.
Sometimes stories are so good, you can’t bear the thought of them disappearing forever. Well, you’re in luck. You can save them to enjoy later and to repost on other social media networks in the following three ways.
After you create or upload a photo or video, tap the three dots at the top right of the screen (iPhone) bottom right of the screen (Android); then tap Save, and Instagram will save your photo or video to your camera roll (see Figure 7-16). You must do this before you tap Your Story or Close Friends.
To save a story after you’ve published it but within its 24-hour window of being active, go to the newsfeed or your profile page and tap your profile picture. If you have an active story, it appears. Tap the right side of the screen until you see the story you want to save. Tap the three small dots at the lower right of the screen, and then tap Save (see Figure 7-17).
Tap the gear icon (Settings) at the top right of the Add to my stories page. Tap Story, and then you can choose to Save to Camera Roll (saving all stories to your phone) or Save to Archive (saving all stories to an accessible archive on Instagram). You can also choose neither of these options (and your stories will not be saved anywhere), one or the other, or both! Sliding the slider to blue means that functionality is on. After you’ve made your selections, tap the arrow to exit the page, and then tap Done on the next page to get back to the story screen.
In the preceding section, we explain how to save your stories to Instagram’s archives (saving precious space on your camera roll). Here, we show you how to access them.
From your Profile page, tap the three lines at the upper right of the screen and then tap Archive. All the stories that you’ve posted since enabling the archive are available for you to view or reshare (see Figure 7-18). Instagram also suggests memories of photos taken on that day in years past to view, and allows searching by date or location.