Mastering Instagram Highlights: A Beginner’s Guide

Ever wish your best Instagram Stories could live longer than 24 hours? Highlights are your shortcut to keeping those moments front and center on your profile, so new visitors can binge your greatest hits anytime. Whether you want to showcase travel snaps, FAQs, or testimonials, Highlights make your profile feel curated and clear, even if you post on the fly.

This beginner friendly how to will walk you through how to add highlights on instagram, step by step. You will learn how to create your first Highlight from your Story archive, how to add and remove clips, how to choose or design a clean cover, and how to rename and reorder for a polished look. We will also cover quick fixes when something is not showing up, privacy basics, and simple ideas for organizing by theme. By the end, you will have a profile that tells your story at a glance, and a repeatable process you can use in minutes. No fancy tools. Just your phone, a few taps, and a little creativity.

Gathering Your Resources

Prerequisites and materials

Before you learn how to add highlights on Instagram, gather a few basics. Update your Instagram app, on iOS check the App Store updates tab, on Android check Google Play, this gives you the latest features. If you need a quick refresher, watch How to Add Instagram Story Highlights. Bring a phone with the updated app, a free Canva account, your logo files, and brand color hex codes. The outcome is simple, you will be ready to build clean, on brand Highlights without rework.

Steps

1. Collect or create engaging Stories, think behind the scenes, product demos, FAQs, and customer shoutouts. Carousels can reach engagement rates around 10.15 percent, so mix short clips and frames to keep viewers tapping. 2) Organize them into clear buckets like Products, Testimonials, FAQs, and Events to reduce friction and increase profile stickiness. 3) Design custom covers in Canva, search Instagram Highlight Cover, set 1080×1920, center a simple icon or logo, export PNG, upload as a Story, then set as the cover. 4) Align to brand identity, use exact hex colors and approved fonts, keep a mini style guide. For deeper tips, see Instagram Highlights: Everything You Need to Know in 2025.

Creating a New Highlight

1. Open Instagram and go to your profile, make sure Stories are saved to Archive so you can pull from them. 2. Tap the + icon under your bio in the Story Highlights area, then choose New to start a collection that keeps key Stories visible beyond 24 hours, a quick win when you are learning how to add highlights on Instagram. 3. Select as many past Stories as you like, focus on evergreen pieces like product walkthroughs, FAQs, testimonials, and event recaps, since 58% of users become more interested in a brand after seeing Stories, which means your Highlights can nurture warm traffic, see supporting data. 4. Choose a short, audience-first name such as Services, Before & After, Reviews, or FAQs, and add a clean cover to boost taps, you can quickly design on-brand covers using templates in this cover guide. Tap Done to pin the Highlight to your profile, review monthly and reorder as needed, and if you want to add Highlights from Archive without posting a new Story, follow this walkthrough.

Editing Your Highlights

If you already know how to add highlights on Instagram, here is how to refine them for impact. At Jesus Empire, we suggest ensuring your app is updated and Stories are saved to Archive, the outcome you want is a polished, on-brand Highlight that keeps visitors exploring. 1) Hold your finger on the Highlight icon you want to edit on your profile. 2) Tap Edit Highlight, then check or uncheck Stories to add or remove, trimming outdated clips and pinning your best tutorials, product shots, or testimonials. 3) To reorder for a cohesive story, clear the Highlight and re-add clips in sequence, for example Intro, Demo, Review, CTA, since Instagram displays by date. 4) Tap Edit Cover and upload a custom image that matches your colors, fonts, and logo so your grid looks tidy and clickable. Example, a café using Menu, Specials, Reviews can improve profile stickiness even as 2025 averages hover near 0.45 percent engagement, so clarity wins.

Customizing Highlight Covers

Before you think about how to add highlights on Instagram, prep your covers. Gather your brand colors, logo, and a simple icon set, plus the Instagram app and a free design tool like Canva. Keep relevance obvious, a suitcase for Travel, a cart for Shop, a star for Reviews, and limit text to 1 to 3 words. Aim for consistent colors, fonts, and spacing so your row of circles reads like a brand kit. With average Instagram engagement around 0.45 percent in early 2025, polished Highlights help your profile stand out. At Jesus Empire, we also recommend high contrast for accessibility.

Quick steps

1. In Canva, open an Instagram Story canvas, 1080 by 1920, set a brand background, then center a clear icon inside the invisible circle.
2. Export as PNG and save to your camera roll.
3. On Instagram, open your profile, long press a Highlight, tap Edit Highlight, tap Edit Cover, pick your PNG, pinch to fit the circle, tap Done.
4. Repeat for each Highlight to keep a consistent set, then preview on different phones for legibility.
5. Expected outcome, a clean, on-brand navigation bar that leads viewers to evergreen stories and improves taps and time on profile.

Using Highlights for Business Strategy

If you already know how to add highlights on Instagram, use them like mini landing pages for launches, promos, and culture. Create a New Arrivals or Deals highlight so followers find offers fast, and refresh weekly. Mix product teasers, FAQs, carousels, and short how tos to outperform typical 0.45 to 2.0 percent engagement. Add branded covers, and group content into Products, Tutorials, Reviews, and Events.

1. Prerequisites: enable Story Archive, gather promo codes, BTS clips, customer quotes, logo files, and simple cover icons; expected outcome is faster setup.
2. Build launch and offer Highlights: tap + New, add Stories for new drops and time bound deals, title with verbs and a date, add a Link sticker; outcome is quicker paths to purchase, see how brands use Highlights for offers.
3. Humanize with culture: add team wins and production peeks to a Behind the Scenes highlight; outcome is higher trust and session time, ideas here behind the scenes ideas.
4. Organize and amplify: keep 4 to 6 Highlights, pin timely sets first, audit monthly, then use Jesus Empire’s Instagram Automator to schedule Stories, auto engage, and DM launch news; outcome is broader reach, see organizing Highlights.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Fix the basics first

Prerequisites: updated Instagram app, stable internet, and a few recent Stories. To ensure you can pull past Stories into Highlights, and if you are learning how to add highlights on Instagram, turn on archiving. 1. Open your profile and tap the menu. 2. Go to Settings, Privacy, Story. 3. Under Saving, toggle Save story to archive, then confirm. Expected outcome: expired Stories will auto-save to your Archive, ready for Highlights later, see this quick guide for details how to enable Story archiving.

Common issues and when to escalate

If Highlights will not load or preview, update the app, switch between Wi-Fi and data, and clear cache or reinstall, these fixes often work troubleshoot loading problems. If you cannot add a Story, check the 24-hour window, only archived or active Stories can be added, then restart the app. Keep Highlights fresh, audit monthly, remove outdated promos, and pin new launches; Instagram’s 2025 average engagement sits near 0.45 percent, so recency matters. Still stuck? Use Help, Report a problem in the app, or tap Jesus Empire for hands-on setup, smart engagement engines, and Highlight strategy that converts.

Keeping Highlights Fresh and Engaging

Quick refresh workflow

As you learn how to add highlights on Instagram, ensure an updated app, Story Archive on, and a simple content calendar. Materials: themes, brand icons for covers, and 15 minutes weekly. Expected outcome: Highlights drive taps and guide visitors. Step 1, update weekly. Add Stories to Highlights, swap in seasonal promos, and prune anything outdated; brands mixing videos and carousels see stronger engagement, with carousels averaging 2.4%. Step 2, listen. Use polls, quizzes, and Q&A to ask what followers want, check views and exits to refine topics, see tips in this Highlights guide and these best practices. Step 3, try features. Test stickers, link prompts, and templates to make Stories save worthy for Highlights. Step 4, balance your reels. Organize Highlights for Products, FAQs, Tutorials, Testimonials, and Culture, every business pillar gets a lane, then reorder, priority items sit first.

Conclusion

Instagram Highlights turn your best Stories into lasting, curated touchpoints. You learned how to create a Highlight from your archive; add or remove clips; design a clean cover; and rename and reorder for a polished look. We also covered quick fixes when something does not show, privacy basics, and simple ways to organize by theme. With a few taps, your profile can tell your story at a glance.

Now put it to work. Open Instagram, pick one theme, build your first Highlight, and set a cover. Repeat this simple process weekly to keep your profile fresh and clear. The tools are already in your pocket. Start crafting Highlights that attract attention and turn curious visitors into followers today.