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How to make cool instagram stories


15 Instagram Stories Design Tips to Create Stunning Visuals -

Summary

To help you captivate your audience in your Instagram Stories, we’ve put together 15 Instagram Stories design tips that will have you creating high-quality visuals your followers will go back to view again and again.

You will learn

  • How to incorporate brand fonts and logos for stunning designs
  • Insider tips on formatting and graphics, backgrounds and overlays
  • How to create stunning highlights covers and templates

Your Instagram feed isn’t the only way to engage your audience and stand out among the crowd anymore.

In fact, since the feature was launched  in August 2016, Instagram Stories have quickly grown to over 500 million daily active users, meaning at least half of Instagram’s overall user base create or view stories every single day.

This means you have the potential to connect with your Instagram audience in two different places on the app, and you don’t want to waste that opportunity with dull Stories and visuals.

To help you captivate your audience in your Instagram Stories, we’ve put together 15 Instagram Stories design tips that will have you creating high-quality visuals your followers will go back to view again and again.

1. Start with a storyboard

There are many different ways to use Instagram Stories. From promoting new blog posts to sharing new features and more, Stories are a great way to engage with your audience without having to be as polished as your feed.

This means you can take live video, behind-the-scenes footage, and iPhone photography without having to worry if it matches the rest of your content.

However, when it comes to your Instagram Story graphics, you still want to ensure you’re putting together visually appealing designs that make your audience want to tune in.

A great way to get started is by using a storyboard to fully plan out your story before you even start on the design.

If you’re wanting to promote a recent blog post, build a storyboard around several of your key tips or points that entice viewers to click through. Or you might put together a storyboard that showcases how to use your product or service.

The possibilities are endless, but having a plan in place can help make your entire design process that much easier.

2. Stay in the lines

Think back to your coloring days in elementary school (or maybe just last Tuesday in your adult coloring book). Learning to stay within the lines is a big deal.

Your Instagram Stories have some pretty important lines and parameters you want to stick between as well.

The top and bottom areas of your story graphics are covered by your username and ways to interact with your story, respectively. You don’t want to include any pertinent information or design elements in these areas.

Thankfully Instagram will warn you if you’re about to move an element too far up or down on the screen, but it’s important to ensure that anything you design outside of the app also stays within the lines.

So while Instagram Stories dimensions are 1080 x 1920 pixels, Instagram recommends keeping all key design elements between the center 1080 x 1420 pixels, leaving 250 pixels at the top and bottom.

3. Create a Story-specific style guide

While you can utilize fully produced graphics and short video clips for your Stories, Instagram also offers tons of design elements you can use to embellish your content.

Consider putting together a style guide specific to which font choices, filters, GIF types, and more, that your company can utilize from IG Stories to continue to stay branded.

You can create this style guide in many different formats to keep handy anytime someone on the team is creating and sharing Instagram Stories. Since there are many different design preferences, having a Story-specific style guide can help improve brand recognition even further

4. Use your brand fonts and colors

Keep everything you create on brand. Even your Instagram Stories.

This means you want to have your brand kit ready to go with your color hex codes, your fonts, your logo and more.

Incorporating your brand fonts and colors helps with brand recognition when your followers are simply scrolling through their stories. They’ll see one of your graphics and automatically know it belongs to your company, without even having to see your username.

5. Incorporate photography

Your Instagram Stories don’t have to consist of entirely custom graphic designs. It’s a great idea to switch it up and incorporate photography every now and then.

The beauty of Instagram Stories is that not everything you publish has to be high-quality and professionally created. Instead, use that smartphone camera and take some behind-the-scenes photography right in the app.

And don’t forget about the millions of free stock photo options that are available to use as well. Just make sure they’re relevant to your brand and the content you’re sharing!

6. Take boomerangs

Boomerang is an Instagram-owned app that has been incorporated directly into their Stories. Users can easily access it by opening the Stories camera and navigating to the option directly to the right.

A boomerang is a quick 1-2 second clip that loops and can be a fun way to create content. Use this instead of taking photos every now and then to add some personality into your Stories.

7. Add a text shadow

Get creative with Instagram’s in-app design assets. You can add a text shadow right in the Stories creation dashboard by adding two different colored layers of the same text.

Simply type out your text in either a lighter or darker shade and place it where you want it to sit on your Story. Then do the exact same thing with your primary shade, placing it overtop the shadow at a slight angle.

This gives you a fun way to add text overtop a photo or video that you took right in the app, making it quick and easy to design your Instagram Stories before publishing.

Instagram Stories has five different font options to choose from: Classic, Modern, Neon, Typewriter, and Strong.

This means your letters and symbols have five different styles. If you take some of these letters and symbols, rotate them, and blow them up, you’ve got some pretty cool design elements to help spice up your Instagram Stories.

Take a look at this example below. Each of these elements have been added with a different symbol, right in the Instagram Stories dashboard.

The top left design was created with capital I in the Modern font. Rotate it sideways, and you can create a bar chart or an underline/backdrop for your text.

Across from that, you see a pink asterisk also in the Modern font. Use these to create stars or snowflakes in your photo or video.

The green circles are periods in the Strong font that have been blown up and overlapped to create a funky design.

Then there are two blue hyphens in the Classic font, and the last element in the example above includes a line of periods in the Modern font that create a dotted line appearance.

See if you can play around with the different letters and symbols in each of the fonts to create accents, backdrops, and more.

9. Access even more colors

When you open up the text or drawing features, you’ll automatically have access to three pages of color options, but you’re not limited to only those 27.

Holding down on one of the available colors opens a spectrum of even more colors for you to choose from.

You can also use the color picker to grab a shade right out of your graphic or photo. If you have your logo in the graphic you upload, this allows you to add additional elements in your brand colors, or simply match them to the colors in your photo.

10. Give your text a rainbow or ombré effect

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is tough to master. But the end result is very cool. In order to achieve this effect, you need to type out your content before selecting it all, or the word(s) you want to ombré.

Then you’ll need to first hold down the screen on top of the first letter before then holding down the screen on top of the color you want to start with.

To create a rainbow effect, you’ll slide across the color spectrum while also sliding across each letter simultaneously. To create an ombré effect, you’ll go from top to bottom or bottom to top.

You can watch this in action in the GIF below:

If you move either of your fingers off the spectrum or off the letters, it can mess the entire thing up, so definitely practice this one a few times before putting it into play.

11. Create backgrounds and overlays

The drawing tool can do more than simply color or highlight information in your story. It can also help you to create backgrounds and color overlays.

If you want to share an announcement on your story without having to find a photo, simply open up the pen tool, find your background color, then press and hold until your entire screen turns that color.

You can also create a translucent color overlay by using the highlighter tool to do the same process – choose a color, then press and hold the screen.

You can also have fun creating sneak peeks by adding a background color overtop your image and moving over to the eraser tool to remove some of the color.

Use this feature to tease new products, blog content, and more.

12. Use Stickers and GIFs

Instagram Stories offers tons of different sticker and GIF options to add humor and pizzazz to your designs.

Scroll through the options or search for something specific to add to your Story. There are many different styles of icon, and you can even add polls, quizzes, Q&As, or hashtag stickers to further engage your audience.

Users can even create and submit their own stickers and GIFs for users to add to their stories, or for your own brand to easily access. Become a verified brand on Giphy to get started creating!

13. Show users how to access more content

Users with more than 10K followers get the “Swipe Up” feature in their stories. If you’ve met this milestone and you add a link to one of your Stories, use your story design to show/tell users to swipe up.

If you don’t have this feature quite yet, and users have to go click a link in your profile, use an arrow or other type of design element that draws their attention to exactly where they need to click.

This creates a call-to-action that lets your Story viewers know exactly what they should do next. Plus, there are tons of arrow stickers to choose from that can further spice up your design.

14. Create branded highlight covers

If you want to save stories for longer than 24 hours, you can add them to various highlights at the top of your profile. There’s no limit to the number of highlights you can create, but only the most recently updated five will appear on your profile. Users will have to scroll to view the rest.

You can create custom covers for each of these highlights, and we highly recommend you do so. Make sure these covers also match your brand and mesh well with your feed since they’ll be viewable at the top of your profile.

15. Start with a template

If you’re still not sure about your design eye with your business or personal Instagram Stories, there’s a solution for that. Start with a template instead of trying to create a Story from scratch.

You can find templates for nearly any purpose, like sharing your #ootd, recent blog posts, inspirational quotes, new product photos, and so much more.

Using fully customizable templates like the one above gives you a starting point for your design, while also allowing you to add in your own brand fonts, colors, and other flair.

Get started creating your own stunning Instagram Stories and wow your audience. Use your Stories to create calls-to-action to your website, to engage your audience with polls and quizzes, to showcase what’s happening behind the scenes, and more.

And to stay organized, you can easily schedule your Stories and simply get a notification when it’s time to publish!

What are your favorite Instagram Story design tips? Reply to our Tweet below with your ideas!

To help you captivate your audience in your Instagram Stories, we’ve put together 15 Instagram Stories design tips for creating high-quality visuals your followers will love! ✨ https://t. co/ShXeEedED5

— Buffer (@buffer) July 2, 2020

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Change Background Colors & More

Ready to take your Instagram Stories game to the next level?

Knowing the latest Instagram Stories hacks will keep your posts on point (and ahead of the trend!)

From little-known design tricks to engagement-boosting strategies, we’re sharing every Instagram story hack you need to know in 2022:

Instagram Stories Hacks You Need to Know in 2022

Instagram Stories are getting a lot more creative — from responsive AR filters to interactive Instagram Stories stickers, there are tons of new features to experiment with.

Ready to get started? We’re sharing the best Instagram Stories tips and tricks you (probably) don’t know yet.

Discover the top Instagram story hacks in action! Watch the full YouTube tutorial here:

Table of Contents:

  1. Instagram Story Design Hacks

  2. Instagram Story Photo Hacks

  3. Instagram Story Sticker Hacks

  4. Instagram Story Video Hacks

  5. Other Instagram Story Tips and Tricks

Instagram Story Design Hacks

Instagram Stories Hacks #1: How To Change The Background Color On Your Instagram Story

To change the background color of an Instagram story, tap the draw tool in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and select a color.

Next, tap and hold on the screen for 1-3 seconds. If you’ve shared a feed post to stories, the background will fill with your chosen color behind the post.

If you’ve created a new story, the whole screen will fill with color, creating a layer of color on top of your photo or video:

You can then use the eraser tool to create a “scratch card” effect to reveal part of your image or video.

Tap the eraser icon on the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select the size of the eraser using the slider on the left-hand side of the screen. Now tap or swipe on the screen where you would like to reveal the underlying image.

And that’s it! If you’re looking to entice your audience and share just a tiny highlight, this Instagram Stories hack should come in handy.

Instagram Stories Hacks #2: Add a Background Image to Your Instagram Story

When you share a feed post to your stories, not only can you change the background color but you can also add in a background image from your camera roll!

If you want to add an image to your Instagram Stories background, here’s how to do it:

First, select the post you want to share to your Instagram Story and select “Add post to your story”.

Tap the sticker tray and select the Instagram “Add from Camera Roll” sticker. Scroll through your images and select the image you want to use as your story background.

Move the feed post to one side of your Instagram Story screen and expand the added photo using two fingers (in a pinch motion). While doing so, tap and hold the original feed post using your thumb. This will bring it to the front of the screen:

Positioning the feed post on the right-hand side of the screen will increase the likelihood of taps — as people typically tap here as they browse through stories.

TIP: If you don’t have access to the “Add from Camera Roll” sticker in stories yet, use an Instagram Stories template app like Unfold or Storyluxe.

Instagram Stories Hacks #3: Access More Colors in Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are the best place to show off your brand’s personality. But, what if Instagram doesn’t offer your brand’s color in its default color options?

Luckily, there’s a hidden Instagram Stories hack that lets you access every color you could ever need!

Open your Instagram Stories and select the draw tool. Tap and long-hold any of the default color options at the bottom of the screen to open the color slider. Then, swipe across the slider to pick a custom color for your story.

BONUS HACK: Make a rainbow effect on your Instagram Story text.

To do so, open Instagram Stories and type out a message. Next, tap on text and tap “Select All” to highlight.

While your text is highlighted, press and hold one finger down on the color palette tool at the bottom of your screen (like you did before) to open the entire color spectrum.

With one finger held down on the color slider, and one on your highlighted text, begin to drag both fingers toward the left side of your screen at the same time.

You’ll see your text begin to change color, letter by letter, as you drag your finger across the color spectrum! You can move your finger faster or slower for additional color variations, or alternate the direction that you drag your fingers across the screen to achieve an entirely different result.

Instagram Stories Hacks #4: Add an Effect to Your Emojis

If you’ve ever wanted to make your emojis stand out more on stories, this Instagram trick is for you!

To add extra depth or a glow to your emojis, open your stories, tap the screen to open the text tool, and scroll through each of the fonts until you find the style you like!

Instagram Stories Hacks #5: Add A Custom Font to Your Stories

If you’re looking to make your stories feel a little more “on brand,” adding a custom font is a great option. Here's how to add a custom, branded font to your Instagram stories.

Start by downloading the GoDaddy Studio (formerly known as Over) mobile app. Once downloaded, AirDrop your font’s .OFT file to your mobile device.

Select “Over” from the menu that pops up.

Once you’ve got your custom font added, you can design stories in the Over app (there are tons of story templates to choose from) or you can write a line of text on a transparent background, save to camera roll, and then add them to your stories via the “Add from Camera Roll” sticker.

Looking for more ways to create Instagram Stories that match your branding? Check out our free video workshop on how to design captivating Instagram Stories!

Instagram Stories Hacks #6: Create Cool Effects with the Eraser Tool

Did you know you can actually use the eraser tool to create all kinds of cool effects on your Instagram Stories?

First, upload the photo of your choice and use the draw tool to draw an effect over the image.

Next, use the eraser tool to remove parts of the zig-zag to create a 3D effect.

This is just one of many ways you can use the eraser tool to create cool design effects on your Instagram Stories!

Instagram Stories Hacks #7: Add Your Brand Colors to Your Story

While Instagram’s full color palette is extensive, it can be hard to pick out an exact color.

Thankfully, there’s an Instagram hack for this.

Use the Instagram Stories “Add from Camera Roll” sticker to add an image with your chosen colors in it.

Next, use the color picker tool (the pipette icon on the left-hand corner of the screen) to sample your desired hue:

You can then use this color for your stories background, the draw tool, or your text.

You can remove your color reference by holding the image down with your finger and moving it to the bottom of the screen until the little trash can appears.

See more tips for branding your Instagram stories here.

Instagram Story Photo Hacks

Instagram Stories Hacks #8: Add Multiple Photos to Your Instagram Story

You can now add extra images to your Instagram story! Here’s how:

#1: Use Instagram’s “Add from Camera Roll” Sticker

To begin, tap the Instagram story sticker tray.

Once you’re in, select any photo from your camera roll, change the size, and place wherever you’d like.

To change the shape of the image, tap the image and select from a circle, star, rectangle, and more.

#2: Copy and Paste an Image from Your Camera Roll

Start by opening a photo from your camera roll and tapping the “export” button.

Now tap “Copy” and head to your Instagram story.

Double-tap the screen to pull up the “Paste” option.

And that’s it! The photo you copied earlier should now appear on your story. Repeat this process for as many photos as you’d like.

NOTE: Only available to iOS users.

Instagram Stories Hacks #9: Turn Live Photos Into Boomerangs

ICYMI: You can turn live photos into fun Boomerangs!

Open Instagram Stories, swipe up, and pick a live photo from your camera roll (you’ll see the boomerang icon on eligible photos).

Once selected, press on the screen for a few seconds until you see the word “Boomerang” appear briefly.

Now you’ve turned your shot into a Boomerang!

NOTE: This hack only works for iOS users.

Instagram Stories Hacks #10: Create Videos That Are the Perfect Instagram Story Length

If you add a photo to your Instagram Story, it’ll play for five seconds. If you add a video to your Instagram Story, it’ll play for 15 seconds.

However, there’s still a way to share longer videos to your Instagram Stories.

If you have a video that is longer than 15 seconds, the whole video will split into 15-second segments. However, you’ll have to add extra elements (such as GIFs, stickers, and text) to each segment. For more tips, check out Later's Ultimate Guide to Instagram videos.

Instagram Story Sticker Hacks

Instagram Stories Hacks #11: Share Multiple Question Answers on a Single Story

The Instagram Stories question sticker has gotten a lot of love from businesses on Instagram — the only drawback is that you can only share one question sticker answer per story.

Luckily, there’s an easy workaround to share multiple responses on one story.

First, create a story where you share a response to your question sticker. Take a screenshot or save the image and exit out of the story.

Open that screenshot and create a second story using a different question sticker response.

Repeat this until you have multiple question stickers on a single story.

And that’s it! Your followers will thank you for saving their thumbs!

Instagram Stories Hacks #12: Pin Stickers, Emojis, Text, and GIFs to Your Instagram Stories

Did you know that instead of layering design elements on top of your Instagram Stories, you can pin text, stickers, emojis, and GIFs into your videos and boomerangs — so they show up at the perfect moment?

To do this, simply record your video then add a creative element like text, a sticker, emoji, or GIF. Then tap and hold the element that you added.

Use the slider bar at the bottom of the screen to scroll through the video and find where you want to pin your creative element.

Once you’ve found the right location in your video, tap “Pin.”

Instagram Stories Hacks #13: Find On-brand GIFs

There are thousands of GIFs available to make your Instagram Stories more interesting.

In fact, there are so many that it can be hard to find good options.

Here are some of our favorite keywords to search in the app to find the best Instagram story GIFs:

Instagram Story Video Hacks

Instagram Stories Hacks #14: Use “Create” Mode to Add a GIF Background

Instagram’s collaboration with GIPHY has been a huge win for businesses and regular users alike.

To create a GIF background to your Instagram story, head over to Instagram’s “Create” mode by tapping the letters icon in the Instagram Stories camera screen, and scroll across to the GIF tab.

From here, you can search from thousands of fun GIFs. They’ll either layer up or display in full length, depending on their aspect ratio.

This is a great way to share content with your audience if you’re running low on original content.

Instagram Stories Hacks #15: Create an Animated GIF with ImgPlay

If you’ve been looking for a way to create fun GIF videos for Instagram Stories, look no further.

The ImgPlay app lets you select multiple photos to create your own looping GIF.

To begin, download the app and select the source for creating your GIF — whether it’s photos, live photos, or a video — then tap “Make.”

Once you’ve created your GIF, you can change the playback speed and duration, and add text, filters, and other customizations using the icons in the bottom bar.

Once you’re done, upload your new GIF to Instagram Stories!

Instagram Stories Hacks #16: Use “Hidden” Instagram Story Filters

Did you know there are a bunch of hidden Instagram Story photo and video effects? To access Instagram Story effects and add a filter to your stories, open up your camera and swipe all the way to the end and select “Browse Effects”.

Here you can scroll and find hundreds of fun effects.

Not sure where to start? Here’s a list of some of our favorite Instagram Story effects to search for:

  • “Presentation” by rendi_vendi

  • “Background” by luisgilson_18

  • “Greenscreen” by Instagram

  • “iPhone Screen 1” by pvikinga

  • “Presentation” by gulim. satekova

Instagram Stories Hacks #17: Add Music to Your Instagram Stories

Adding music to your Instagram stories is a great way to make your content more entertaining.

Make sure you’re using the latest version of the Instagram app, open the Instagram Stories camera, and take or upload a photo or video.

Once that’s done, select the music sticker at the top of the screen (or search for “Music” in the Instagram Stories sticker tray).

This will open the Instagram music library where you’ll find thousands of songs to choose from.

You can scroll through a “For You” tab of suggested songs, browse by categories, or search for a specific song.

When you’re happy with your song choice, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story. You can also choose how long you want the music clip to play for (the maximum is 15 seconds).

Finally, you can customize what the sticker looks by tapping it before publishing (there are six variations in total!):

NOTE: If you have a business account, you may only have a limited selection of music due to Instagram’s licensing agreements.

If you don’t have access to music on stories, check out this blog post for our top trouble-shooting tips. Learn more about adding music to your Instagram stories here.

Other Instagram Story Tips and Tricks

Instagram Stories Hacks #18: Automatically Add Closed Captions To Your Stories

Thanks to the new Captions sticker, it’s easier than ever to automatically add closed captions to stories.

Here’s how:

Head to the Instagram Stories camera and either record or upload a video from your camera roll.

Once uploaded or recorded, tap the sticker tray icon and select the “Captions” sticker.

At this stage, you can choose from four different text formats, move the text around the screen, and change the color.

And that’s it! Your captions will now be generated on your Instagram story.

Be sure to watch and read captions before posting as Instagram may not accurately transcribe your audio.

NOTE: The Instagram captions sticker is currently only available in English and English speaking countries.

Instagram Stories Hacks #19: Schedule Your Instagram Stories in Advance

The most successful stories have a clear flow, a consistent aesthetic, and tell a strong story.

Which is why it’s a good idea to plan and storyboard them in advance!

By scheduling your Instagram Stories posts with Later, you can visualize how your posts will flow together.

Planning and scheduling Instagram Stories posts takes just a few minutes and it can all be done from your desktop.

When the time comes to make your Instagram Stories live, you’ll receive a push notification to your phone and with just a few taps, you’ll be able to share your posts with your followers.

Ready to start scheduling your Instagram Stories posts? Later’s Instagram Stories scheduler is available now on all paid plans. Upgrade now to get access or start scheduling stories!

Instagram Stories Hacks #20: Create and Share Multiple Stories at Once

If you want to add a number of stories at once, Instagram’s multi-capture tool is the way to go.

To access it, press the multi-capture icon on the left hand side of the screen.

Here, you can take up to 10 photos in a row. When you’re happy with the photos you’ve taken, you’ll see the photos in a lineup at the bottom of your screen.

At this stage, you can tap and edit each individual slide. You can change your story background, add text, stickers, music, or effects to each slide.

Instagram Stories Hack #21: Use the Correct Instagram Stories Size

Not sure the correct Instagram Stories dimensions?

Luckily you can share pretty much anything on Instagram Stories, as long as it has a minimum dimensions of 1.91:1 and a maximum dimensions of 9:16.

Because most people prefer their stories to take up the whole screen (no borders), we recommend using an aspect ratio of 9:16 with a size of 1080px by 1920px.

Instagram Stories Hacks #22: See How Many Times Your Post was Shared on Stories

Instagram collects a ton of great data about your post’s performance, like the number of impressions, saves, follows, and more. But there’s one piece of data you might be missing out on: story reshares.

You won’t find this in your Instagram Insights. Instead, you’ll need to tap the ellipsis in the top right corner of a post to pull up a menu with the option to “View Story Reshares”.

This will take you to a screen with a list of public reshares that are currently live.

You can tap one of the reshares to see it live on the user’s account.

If you don’t see the option to see reshares, this either means your post isn’t currently being shared in anyone’s public stories.

This can be particularly useful for finding and replying to shares that you’re not tagged in.

Given the number of updates and new features on Instagram Stories, it can be difficult to stay on top of all the cool features at your disposal.

Hopefully, these Instagram Stories hacks help you create fun, artistic, and creative Instagram Stories that set you apart from your competition!

Start scheduling your Instagram Stories with Later today, available on all paid plans.

How to Make Cool Videos for Instagram Stories: 13 Apps

Short videos and live photos are popular on Instagram right now. But it is not necessary to own professional editing programs to create them.

The MC.today team figured out how to make cool videos for Instagram Stories. We offer a selection of 13 applications that even an inexperienced user will master.

Instagram Stories Trends in 2021

Bloggers and marketers track trends on Instagram and Stories, both visually and meaningfully. In 2021, such destinations are popular.

Aesthetics

Source

This could be a video of rays of light flooding a room. In general, natural or artificial moments that evoke a sense of beauty.

Minimalism

Source

The trend has been living for several years in clothing, interior design, text and even lifestyle. Instagram stories are no exception.

Geometry

Source

Neat circles, squares, lines as additional elements in photos and videos. The main thing is not to overdo it with the number of elements.

Magazine style of fonts, text, block layout

Source

Each story can become a mini-article from a thematic gloss. The trend is especially suitable for expert content.

Additional effects, fonts, dynamic text, "wavy" captions on photos and videos

Such stories were made several years ago. Today the trend is back in a more accurate version. Not always appropriate, but sometimes worth using.

Source

"Zalipalki"

Source

Short videos of how a juicy orange is cut, water flows, coffee is stirred or dough is kneaded. To create such a story, you can apply a slow-motion effect to the video - you get a bewitching spectacle.

Sincerity, or photos and videos without “retouching”

Source

Users seem to be bored with “ideal” people and lives. For many years, naturalness has been in trend. Therefore, photos and videos without makeup, and even more so without enhancement in Photoshop, are in the top among users. The trend is also relevant for brands.

Your signature style

Whether it's background tints, rare fonts, or other stylized elements that make your followers recognize your story at a glance.

How to get more people to see your stories
  • Post at least one story every day, and then take a break from stories for a day or two. After that, the next story you publish will get more coverage.
  • Allow people to share your story. To enable the feature, tap Settings, then Privacy, History, and turn on both Allow stories to be re-shared and Allow sharing.
  • Add themed hashtags.
  • Specify geolocation.
  • React to other users' stories.

13 apps to make videos for stories

Influencer Marketing Hub, Oberlo and Later recommend these apps for making simple videos for Instagram Stories.

1. InShot

This is a photo and video editor in Russian. You can overlay music, trim, merge, rotate and even flip videos. There is a speed control tool.

You can manually adjust the aspect ratio to make the movie suitable for different platforms. For example, to center a vertical entry. There are also filters and the ability to overlay text. After editing, you need to select the quality in which you want to save the video.

Supports popular formats: MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, 3GP and more.

2. Adobe Spark

You can add sounds, fonts, animations, and other effects with this application. It works simply: upload a video and select the desired effects from the collection.

An interesting feature is that you can create animated video posts in the program. There is cloud backup, which makes it easy to sync across devices.

3. Unfold

There are over 300 templates in this editor. With the help of graphics, fonts and tools, you can create stylish collages for Instagram stories.

It is not necessary to create an account with this application. After downloading, you can immediately create stories and share them.

The app is free, but you can subscribe to get access to more templates, fonts, and more.

4. PhotoGrid

In this application, you can edit photos, make collages from videos and pictures, apply filters, add branded special effects, and manually draw mustaches, daisies, and whatever you want.

In addition, there is a tool for creating a video presentation from photos. In the editor, you can put music on it, sign some or all frames, edit them, adjust the playback speed.

5. Microsoft Hyperlapse Mobile

The main feature of the application is shooting video in motion with image stabilization, that is, the image does not shake while the camera is moving. This can be useful when you are filming while walking, running, driving, or riding a horse.

In the program, you can shoot videos in slow motion and change the speed of already recorded videos: zoom in up to 32 times.

The time limit for time-lapse movie recording is 20 minutes. Ready-made videos can be shared immediately on social networks or saved to your phone.

6. Hype Type

A feature of the application is the ability to add moving text to the photo. So the image seems to come to life. The font, size and color of the text are selected manually.

The inscription can be your own or from the collection of the program. In the settings, you can add music, set the speed of the translation of the text and its appearance.

7. Vintage 8mm Video - VHS

You can create beautiful vintage video stories with this application. The program imitates old 8mm cameras, which gives the videos a nostalgic touch. In the application, you can choose the stylization of shooting by year: from 1920s to 1970s. In manual mode - adjust color correction for a unique style.

Retro effects can be added to already recorded videos from the gallery.

The free version of the roller program will have a watermark. You can only add one label. If you need two or more, save the photo to your smartphone and open it again in the app.

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8. Jump Rope

This platform is suitable for those who shoot educational stories. In it, you can sequentially record each step of your tutorial.

You can add text to the video, edit the music, and adjust the playback speed.

9. Clipomatic

The program creates subtitles for your videos. Looking through your story, a person will understand what you are talking about, even without turning on the sound.

To use, press Record and speak clearly. Your words will appear over the video. The application understands more than 30 languages.

Clipomatic does not understand speech perfectly, like other voice assistants. But you can always edit the titles after recording.

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10. FilmoraGo

The application can overlay or extract music from videos, add text, stickers, blur edges, and so on. There are standard editing functions: cut, glue frames, improve quality. You can also combine two videos into one clip and set up a beautiful transition, like in a movie.

If you use the program for free, then the video will have a watermark. To remove it, you need to buy a subscription for $1.99.

11. Mojo

The application has 100 animated templates for different types of content. To create a story, you need to choose the one you like, add a photo or video, text and customize it to your taste.

Here you can trim, crop video, add effects, titles, animation. There are tools to change the playback speed, color and many other features.

Custom fonts are added to Mojo to make your stories stand out from hundreds of others.

12. Patternator

With this application, you can select the desired element from a photo - fragment, logo, sticker, emoji and the like. And after that, create a funny image in the style of GIF. It's like a sticky, but with humor.

You can use your own photos or from the application's collection. The program automatically suggests a palette for the video background. Image size, pattern spacing, rotation, and other settings can be adjusted manually.

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13. StoryZ Live Photos

This application allows you to create several types of live photos. For example, select areas that will move in the photo. Or cut out a fragment and place it on a completely new background. Or use the Magic Brush tool to create magical pictures in motion, such as an asteroid shower.

6 Instagram Stories Design Tools

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Want to create more professional Instagram Stories? Or maybe you are wondering how to add design elements, music to your Stories?

In this article, you'll learn 6 simple tools to make your Instagram Stories more interesting.

#1: Create Stories templates with the Easel app

Price: Basic version is free; paid version - from $7.5 per month.

Easel is a design platform with a range of templates and tools to help you create high-quality marketing materials, including images for Instagram Stories. Whether you're using your Stories to announce special offers, drive traffic to a new blog post, or announce anything on Instagram, you'll find a matching image template that you can easily edit and personalize.

To get started, create an account for free. After logging in, click "Create New Design" at the top of the page.

Now you can choose from a large list of templates. On the left navigation, go to: Sizes > Social Media > Instagram Stories.

These templates are set to the correct dimensions for Instagram Stories, so you can easily modify them as you need.

Note that if you have a paid version of Easel, you can resize any template by clicking the appropriate button on the right.

If you want to further customize the design of your Instagram Stories, there are several options. To change the font, select the text in the image and then choose a specific font from the drop-down menu in the top left corner.

If you want to change the color of elements in the design (or remove them completely), just select them and select the appropriate icon.

You can also add other creative elements. Such as icons, templates and fonts. These options are easy to find on the toolbar on the right.

Easel offers a library of images if you would like to include them in your template. To access this library, click the photo icon in the toolbar and enter a search term in the search bar.

When you're done with your design, you can save it as a PNG file, ready to upload to Instagram Stories.

#2: Add titles and music videos to your Stories with Hype Type

Hype Type is a mobile app (available for IOS and Android) that lets you add funny fonts and music videos to your Stories.

Once installed, shoot your Stories through the app, or upload photos and videos from your smartphone to it. This is a free application.

When you have your photo or video ready, tap the "T" symbol to scroll through the fonts and choose your favorite. You can move a font by clicking on it and dragging it across the screen.

To edit the text, double-tap it when it appears on the image or video. If you're out of inspiration, tap the apostrophe icon to find shared quotes ready to post. If you are satisfied with your text, click on the blue symbol to check.

To add music, click the icon in the music bar (the rightmost icon) and click Add Music.

This will bring up a search bar where you can enter an artist name or song title, or browse recommended tracks that you can add to your Stories for added impact. When you find the song you want, click "Use It" to add it.

When your story is complete, click on the blue checkmark on the screen and you will see a download icon and three social media sharing options. Click on the "Instagram" icon to save the story to your gallery and immediately go to Instagram Stories where you can download it.

#3: Make a multi-page story with Unfold

Unfold is a free Stories app available for iOS. Best for creating fashion, travel and lifestyle content. This app has stylish, minimalist templates that will make your content look attractive and professional with minimal effort.

You can add borders to your template, customize it and edit fonts. Unfold allows you to create your story so that you can immediately upload it directly to Instagram.

First step: click on the "+" icon at the top of the app to create a new story. You'll need to come up with a name to make it easier to create organized Stories folders.

Then click on the "+" icon at the bottom of the screen and choose your story layout. You can choose a single image or a template with multiple image containers to create a collage. Swipe through the templates at the bottom of the screen and tap the one you want.

To add images, click on the "+" icons in the template.

You will be taken to your camera gallery and easily find the albums with images or videos you want to use.

To reorder, press and hold the image to drag it to the desired location.

To add another page to your story, simply click on the "+" icon at the bottom of the screen. You will again be prompted to select a layout. It can be a layout you already know or a new one that will add variety to your Stories. You can add as many pages as you like by repeating this process.

To add a text-only page, choose a layout with horizontal lines rather than image containers. Then just click on the text to edit it.

In the lower left corner of the screen, click on the eye icon to view the history. If you're happy with it, tap the download arrow icon in the top right corner to save the story to your camera gallery. Then upload it to Instagram Stories manually.

#4: Add photos to your video story with Quik

Quik is an easy-to-use, free GoPro video editing app that offers preset transitions, graphics, and soundtracks and optimizes videos for vertical display. Quik works with photos and videos to create high quality videos that you can share on social media.

Once you have downloaded the application, click on the "+" icon to add at least five images or videos from the camera gallery.

If you have selected photos, click and drag them in the order you want them to appear in your slideshow. If you are using video, you can click "Hilights" and select the highlights you want to include.

After selecting the media you want to use, click "Add" in the top right corner to create a video.

Each video has an opening slide that displays the title. To change it, click on the text, delete it, and come up with your own title to add context to your video.

To change the title slide design, scroll through the templates at the bottom of the screen and tap to try them out.

To create a video suitable for Instagram Stories, you will need to change the orientation to portrait. To do this, click on the wrench icon, then click Format > Portrait and click OK.

Music will be automatically added to your video. To change a track, click on the music note icon and scroll through the available tracks by topic. In addition, you can select a track from your own music library, or select "No Music" if you prefer.

If you want to change the order of the elements in the video, click on the "Timeline" icon (third icon from the left) and drag the elements as desired. You can also delete Quik Outro at the end of the video by clicking on the pencil icon, scroll to Outro and hit Delete.

Once your video is complete, click save and you will have the option to share it on social media or upload it to your gallery.

#5: Get professional graphics in Stories with Adobe Spark Post

Price: Free or $9.99/month for premium.

Adobe Spark Post offers marketing templates with a variety of graphics, fonts, and backgrounds. You can also download your own brand assets like logos and fonts with the premium version which costs $9.99 per month.

To create compelling Instagram Stories with Spark Post, go to spark.adobe.com and create an account. After logging in, click on the "+" icon and click "Publish" to create a new post.

You can then browse templates by topic or create a story from scratch.

After choosing a template, select the existing text to edit it and add your own message. You can change the text color, font, and placement using the navigation bar to the right of your template.

To delete items, including text, select them with the cursor and click the trash icon.

To select a style, click Text at the top of the page, then scroll through the suggestions to apply different variations to your text elements. Click "Done" to apply the selected style to your design.

If you want to change the layout but keep the color scheme and font style, go to the Layout section in the navigation bar and browse the options. When you decide on the layout - click "Finish".

Keep in mind that it's best not to over-adjust the template. Just tweak it to suit your purpose and reflect your brand style as closely as possible.

To save your Story, simply click the Download button in the top navigation bar.

#6: Convert Video to 15 Second Story with Storeo

Last but not least, Storeo is a free IOS app that easily converts videos into 15 second clips that are perfect for Stories . The app is intuitive and comes with a helpful introduction to help you access your microphone, camera, and photos.

The next step is to create or upload a video. Click on the "clapboard" icon at the bottom right corner of the screen to select a video from the gallery. Or tap the camera icon to record a new video.

When you're happy with the video, click "Export as X Slices" at the bottom of the screen. Storeo will then divide your video into the most optimal number of segments. It optimizes the beginning and end of each of them in such a way that when you load the content into Stories, the transitions will be as “fused” as possible.

Once exported, you'll receive a download confirmation and the option to open the Instagram app to add video clips to your Stories.

All you have to do now is upload the content to your Stories.

Commentary on the article was given by Dasha Andreeva , founder of the SMM agency Wishdo Stories have long been a separate part of Instagram content. It is impossible to lead them according to the residual principle, in the spirit: “What is left and not included in the main feed is for Stories.” They need to be planned, prepared in advance, processed. Only then will they work and help the development of the page.

The applications above are very cool. I especially often use Hype Type in my work - for text and Unfold - for beautiful frames and collages.

Here are 5 more apps to make your Stories cool.

AppForType . A handy application for adding text. Yes, you can add text directly to Instagram Stories, but it will look typical "like everyone else." And so with just one text, you can decently stand out like that.

In 3 seconds, added the inscription: "Yes you can." You can change the size, color, the inscription itself. But only in English.

Huji and Kuni. Applications that help you add a 90s effect to your photos. It is very fashionable now. And if not every tape can fit such content, then in Stories - very much so.

BEFORE

After (Huji)

InShot. Applications for photo and video processing. You can add music and various effects, a la interference or "ghost". Easy to use.

Added a frame under the photo, Stories format. Filling the background is a blurry photo. Added text. You can add music.

Adobe Sketch. Beautiful strokes in the photo. It's like you're an artist, and Stories are a canvas. The program is not very easy to use, so you have to "sweat" to master it. But it's worth it.

For one of the profiles I used strokes as a background for text. Simple, cute and evokes a sense of a certain "single style".

You can make a slideshow of photos or edit a simple video. For Stories, I often use it to make a video compilation of photos.

Learn more