Ever wish your best Stories could live on your profile longer than 24 hours? Good news, they can. Instagram Highlights let you pin your favorite moments right under your bio, so visitors see them first. If you are a beginner and wondering how to make a highlight on instagram, you are in the right place.
In this quick, beginner friendly guide, you will learn exactly how to create your first Highlight in minutes. We will cover how to save Stories to your archive, turn a live Story into a Highlight, add older Stories, rename and reorder clips, pick a cover image, and edit or delete when you need to. You will also get simple design tips for clean covers, easy theme ideas for personal accounts and small businesses, and smart tricks to keep viewers tapping through. No tech jargon, just clear steps you can follow right away. By the end, your profile will look more polished, and your best content will keep working for you long after the 24 hour timer runs out. Ready to start?
Prerequisites and Materials
Phone and app setup
Before we dive into how to make a highlight on Instagram, grab a smartphone with Instagram installed and up to date. On your profile, open Settings, Privacy, Story, and turn on Save story to archive. This stores every Story so you can build Highlights from past moments and keep them visible beyond 24 hours. New to the feature? See how Instagram Highlights work in this quick primer: how Instagram Highlights work.
Stories and optional design tools
Have a few Stories ready to choose from, recent or archived. Think clear categories your audience actually wants, like FAQs, Reviews, Before and After, or Menu. Stories have 500 million daily users, so Highlights can turn visitors into followers by showcasing your best bits. Optional, design clean cover icons at 1080×1080, use brand colors, and center simple graphics so they crop cleanly. When ready, you can create a Highlight from your profile in under a minute with these steps: create a Highlight from your profile. Running a business? Jesus Empire’s Instagram Automator and 4G Mobile Proxy help keep posting consistent while you focus on creative.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Instagram Highlights
Start and select
With your app ready, if you are wondering how to make a highlight on Instagram, you can do it in minutes. 1. Open Instagram and go to your profile using the bottom right icon. 2. Tap the New circle with the + under your bio to start a Highlight. 3. Pick past Stories from your Archive, tap each to checkmark, then hit Next for a preview. Aim to select 5 to 10 clips that tell one mini story, for example a product launch or event recap. Stories reach 500 million daily, and Highlights keep top moments alive.
Name and design
- Name your Highlight so the theme is obvious, keep it short so it does not truncate, examples: Menu, Reviews, BTS, Events. 5. Tap Edit Cover, choose a frame from a Story or upload a clean 1080 x 1080 image with a simple icon and brand colors. Center the focal point and test legibility on dark and light mode. Align covers so the first row reads like navigation. Expected outcome: a tidy button on your profile that visitors can tap to binge key content. Pro tip from Jesus Empire: refresh Highlights monthly and add customer testimonials for extra trust.
Customizing Highlights for Business Impact
Align cover icons with brand aesthetics
Prerequisites: brand colors and fonts handy, logo file, and a simple icon set. Materials: a design app and your existing Highlights. 1. Pick 2 to 4 brand colors and one font, then design clear icons for each category. 2. Export 1080×1080 covers, then upload in Edit Highlight; see aesthetic Instagram highlight cover ideas for examples.
Showcase products and customer testimonials
- Create Highlights like Products, Tutorials, and Love from Customers. 4. Add shoppable Stories, quick demos or Reels snippets, and short CTAs to tap Link. Stories reach over 500 million accounts daily, and UGC drives about 42 percent of viral posts. For layout and testimonial ideas, study this guide to Story Highlights for brand trust.
Organize Highlights for a seamless user experience
- Order Highlights by goals, for example Start, Products, FAQs, Testimonials, Events. 6. Keep each under 20 to 30 Stories, pin the best, prune monthly, and expect smoother navigation. Design refreshes lifted Highlight views by 22 percent, see design led Instagram transformations. Jesus Empire’s Instagram Automator and smart engagement engines help you queue Stories and keep Highlights fresh.
Tips and Troubleshooting Common Issues
Keep Highlights fresh and uncluttered
Prerequisites and materials: Archive on and simple themes defined, plus your current Highlights list. Post Stories weekly so you always have new material to pin, remember over 500 million accounts watch Stories daily, so freshness boosts discovery. Curate by theme, for example New Arrivals, FAQs, Testimonials, then move only top clips into Highlights from Archive. Keep it tidy, aim for 5 to 7 Highlight albums and cap each album at roughly 15 to 20 Stories, audit monthly and remove outdated slides. Reorder by press and hold to put your highest value categories first so visitors quickly grasp your offer and your how to make a highlight on Instagram workflow stays simple.
Fix display issues fast
Expected outcome: Highlights load and attach new Stories correctly. Try these steps. 1. Update Instagram in your app store to get the latest fixes. 2. Clear cache, Android, Settings, Apps, Instagram, Storage, Clear Cache; on iOS, offload the app and reinstall. 3. Restart the phone and verify a stable Wi Fi or mobile data connection. 4. If problems persist, reinstall and review this quick tutorial, Instagram Highlights Not Working? Easy Fix in 2024!.
Leveraging Instagram Automator to Optimize Highlights
Smart scheduling for Highlight updates
Prerequisites: an Instagram business account, Story archive on, and access to Jesus Empire’s Instagram Automator. 1) Map 4 goal based Highlight categories, then batch 8 to 12 short Stories so you can drip updates. 2) Use AI suggested posting times from this guide on auto scheduling optimal times; a case study saw a 20 percent lift. 3) Schedule drops with Hootsuite’s Instagram scheduler and use this scheduling Instagram Stories walkthrough to auto archive and add to the right Highlight.
Viral re engagement and performance monitoring
- Turn on viral re engagement logic in the Automator, when someone replies with a keyword, instantly DM a helpful resource and a link to the matching Highlight. 5) Build engagement loops that like a recent post, leave a genuine comment, then invite viewers to watch a Highlight series that tees up your offer. 6) Monitor weekly in Instagram Insights, track reach, impressions, taps, exits, profile visits, and A B test covers or titles. Expected outcome: fresher Highlights, more completes, and higher follower conversion, which matters since over 500 million accounts use Stories daily; as you master how to make a highlight on Instagram, Jesus Empire keeps automations humming.
Conclusion
If you learned how to make a highlight on Instagram, treat your Highlights like a storefront window, they turn curious visitors into followers when curated with intent. Try this quick routine: 1) every month, review your Story archive and remove outdated clips; 2) refresh cover icons to match current campaigns and brand colors; 3) reorder bubbles by goal, lead capture, products, social proof. Prerequisites: archive on and a simple brand kit; materials: recent Stories, icon set, and Jesus Empire’s Instagram Automator. Aim for outcomes like cleaner Highlights, more profile taps, and better retention, which matters when over 500 million accounts use Stories daily and Reels drive 22 percent higher engagement. Stay current with features like AR effects, collab posts, and shopping tags, and use Jesus Empire’s 4G Mobile Proxy for secure, consistent growth.
