What is the Insta Stories feature today? It is the most trendy type of content among Instagrammers. After all, it is the most lively and exciting content to attract and engage your audience. But, at the same time, it is also content that can inspire you for new ideas in the development of your business and yourself:
- Beautiful pictures of exciting places on our planet.
- Inspiring motivational videos.
- Just a case from the life of your favorite Influencer that you want to keep.
Stories content that lives only 24 hours from the moment of publication is not the most pleasant feature at times. It would be much more convenient to be able to keep Stories of your competitor, friend, Influencer, etc. (I hope, that only for good intentions) on your devices to “prolong the life” of helpful content. Of course, saving your own Stories is much easier because IG offers many options for “extending the life” of your Story, but in the case of other users’ Stories, it is much more difficult. But challenging does not mean impossible.
Here I covered the most workable options to upload Stories from IG (both your own and others’): using IG in-build features, an easy downloader Instagram tool, screenshot and screen recording.
Save others’ users Stories
Option 1. Online tools
Today, using a web-based Story saver for Instagram to download Stories into a pc (and some of them are compatible with phones, too) is considered the most practical method.
First of all, because there is no need to download any software (although we associate additional applications only with installation), plus it is pretty easy to download someone else Story this way (see below).
Such tools are freely available on the Internet: type in Instagram Story Saver into a Google search, and you’ll get a variety of pages about online downloaders (StorySaver.net, Save-Insta, Instadp, etc.).
Note: some tools are multifunctional to give a possibility to upload Highlights, Reels, Profile pictures, videos, or have Instagram download pictures from the news feed option.
Here’s how to keep a Story with an easy downloader Instagram:
- Go to a saver and insert a username whose Stories you wish to get on a computer.
- Pick out a Story from current ones that you desire to save, and then click on a download button.
Option 2. Phone in-build feature
A screenshot or screen recording is another option to get someone else’s Story on your phone, which I would instead consider as a backup.
Firstly, this way will spoil the quality of the Story, and secondly, by recording the screen, you end up with everything that happened on it, not just the Story (incoming alerts during the recording at the top of the screen and other things). Nevertheless, this method is also available and therefore has a place to be as an option.
To take a screenshot of an image of a Story on an iPhone, press the side and home buttons sync. To record a screen with a video, swipe the screen from bottom to top and find a “circle” icon at the very bottom.
To take a screenshot on Android, press the power and volume down buttons sync. To record a screen, press a screen recording button available on Settings.
Save your own Stories
Option 1. Download Stories to your phone
If you’ve created a Story on IG and now want to save your artwork to your phone’s gallery, it’s not that hard to perform. See what you need to do in this case:
- Open your active Story and find on the screen the “ellipsis” icon and then click on “Save”.
- To upload a photo or video separately, click on the “Save photo/video icon”.
- To download a whole Story as an entire video, press on the “Save Story” icon.
This saving option is helpful if you desire to get a separate Story after it has been published. But it’s not practical to save it manually every time.
Option 2. Archive them
If you want the Stories you post to be automatically saved in a separate folder on Insta, use the archive function. By activating this feature, you will be able to keep all your created Stories in one place even after 24 hours of publication.
- Switch to your profile screen and click on the top right button.
- Pick out “Settings,” then press on “Privacy”.
- On the opened page, click on the” Story” icon and find the Saving section.
- Activate the “Save Story to Archive” feature.
- To browse your archived Stories at any time, go to “Settings” again, where you’ll see the “Archive” icon tap on it, and you’ll access saved Stories.
Note: there’s also a function to save Stories to camera roll. Move the slider, too, if you wish to keep created Stories in a phone gallery.
Option 3. Add Stories into ‘Highlights’
The Highlight feature is handy for organizing your profile in a structured way. Highlights will be visible to all users when they access your page.
Here’re some reasons to create a Highlight section on your profile:
- it will be easy for users to find more about your prices, services, reviews, testimonials, etc.;
- you can make separate sections for each product (for example, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.);
- add UGC and FAQ.
And these are just a couple of ideas for the use of Highlights. But the fact that they make your account more structured and that’s already taking care of your audience.
ProTip: when creating your Highlights, think about the theme of each group of Highlights covers. Stick to the same colors you have on your profile. Matching covers for each highlighter section will enhance the overall design concept of your profile.
How to add your archived Story to “Highlights”:
- Go into “Settings” and then click on “Archive”.
- Press on a Story and then “Highlight”.
- Add a new category to upload the Story or use an existing one.
Important: Please, remember that copyrights still exist, so whatever your purpose in downloading the Stories or way to get them (with an easy downloader Instagram tool or screenshot/screen recording), you shouldn’t use them for profit, passing them off as your own, etc. So the best thing to do is respect the author of the content and still use the valuable images and videos for your development purposes (as an idea).