If someone lands on your Instagram profile today, would they see your best content or just your latest Story?
Instagram Highlights give you a way to put your strongest Stories right at the top of your profile, even before pinned posts.
Highlights on Instagram help visitors quickly understand who you are, what you offer, and why they should stick around, if your strategy hits the mark.
In this guide, we show you how to use Highlights strategically so your profile starts working the second a potential follower, fan, or customer lands on your profile.
We have included a short definition below before going deeper into how highlights differ from their counterparts.
Unlike regular Instagram Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, Highlights stay pinned to your profile until you remove them.
This makes them one of your most valuable tools for showcasing evergreen or strategic content directly to visitors who land on your page.
Think of Stories as your temporary content and Highlights as your permanent, curated shelf. Here are the main ways they’re different:
Instagram Highlights act like a visual menu for your brand. New visitors can scroll to learn more about what you offer, what your brand stands for, and why they should follow you.
Highlights are especially powerful because:
In short, Instagram Highlights give your profile structure, clarity, and strategy, which many brand pages sorely lack.
Instagram Highlights let brands turn temporary Stories into permanent, browsable content, so it makes sense to use them intentionally.
The key is to think like a visitor: What would someone want to know about your brand within the first 10 seconds of landing on your profile?
Here are some of the most effective (and engaging) ways to use Highlights, with real-world inspiration and ideas you can apply for your business, a client’s company, or a major brand.
Use Highlights to walk people through your products or services, like a visual brochure.
Answer your most common customer questions upfront to reduce the number of DM questions and build trust.
Social proof is essential in social media marketing: 92% of customers say they trust recommendations from friends and family, and 70% claim they trust reviews and opinions shared online by other customers.
Highlights are the perfect way to make sure your brand benefits from customer reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content (UGC).
Humanising your brand and being authentic helps build stronger and deeper connections with your audience. BTS and POV Stories show your authentic self, while Highlights ensure they’re visible to everyone.
Your Highlight covers are prime real estate on your Instagram profile. They appear directly below your bio, often catching visitors' eyes before they scroll to your feed.
Thoughtful cover design can make your profile feel cohesive, professional, and easy to navigate.
Here are some creative Highlight cover ideas tailored to different brand goals:
Minimalist icons in brand colors: Design simple icons for each Highlight category. For example, a shopping cart icon for "Products," a star icon for "Reviews," or a play button icon for "Tutorials." Keep the background consistent (usually your brand's primary color or white/black) and use contrasting icon colors for clarity.
Text-based covers: Skip the icons entirely and use clean typography with the Highlight name. This works exceptionally well for service-based businesses or personal brands. Choose a legible font and ensure the text is large enough to read at thumbnail size. You can add subtle textures or gradients to keep things visually interesting.
Photo snippets with branded overlays: Use a small, cropped section of a relevant photo (like a product shot or team member) and overlay it with a semi-transparent color block and text. This approach adds personality while maintaining brand consistency across all covers.
Monochromatic theme: Create all your covers in shades of a single color, with each Highlight slightly darker or lighter than the next. This creates a gradient effect across your profile that's visually striking and instantly recognisable.
Custom illustrations: Commission or create simple line drawings or sketches that represent each category. This works particularly well for lifestyle brands, food businesses, or creative agencies looking to showcase their unique brand personality.
Neon or gradient effects: For brands targeting younger audiences or seeking a bold, modern aesthetic, neon outlines or vibrant gradients can make Highlights stand out. Just make sure they're still legible at small sizes.
Behind-the-scenes candid shots: For a more authentic, less polished approach, use actual photos from your business as Highlight covers. A picture of your workspace for "BTS," a customer using your product for "Reviews," or your team for "About Us" creates warmth and relatability.
Creating Instagram Highlights is a strategic way to showcase your best content directly on your profile. If you’re ready to start using them to your advantage, here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create and organise your Highlights effectively.
Before you can add content to your Highlights, you need to create and save Instagram Stories. Here’s how:
Organising your Highlights into specific categories helps visitors navigate your content quickly. Here’s how to create a categorised Highlights:
And that’s it! The process is quick and easy, but taking these steps can significantly enhance your Instagram profile.
In some cases, you might want to create a Highlight without it appearing (even for a moment) as a regular Story. Here is how to do this:
Although Instagram requires content to exist as a Story before it can be added to Highlights, there's a workaround that lets you add content to Highlights without it appearing in your main Story feed for all your followers to see.
This technique is handy when you want to curate professional, evergreen content for your profile without disrupting your regular Story flow or confusing followers with out-of-context posts.
Here is the 4-step process:
Now, here is how to optimise Instagram highlights.
Once your Highlights are live, the goal is to keep them purposeful, polished, and up to date. Think of this section of your profile as a mini homepage. Visitors can scan it to decide if your content is worth exploring.
Here’s how to make every Highlight count.
Your Highlight covers are one of the first things people see when they visit your profile, so don’t leave them on default:
A clean, consistent look gives your profile a more professional and curated feel, which is especially important if you’re using Instagram to build brand trust.
Highlights aren’t set-it-and-forget-it type content, but many brands treat them that way. Outdated Highlights can make your page feel stale, especially if promos, pricing, or policies change.
Schedule and share a range of Instagram content formats, including Highlights, at optimal times, utilise the right hashtags, and manage your community with Sendible.
The following features make creating content for, scheduling posts, and community management on Instagram so much easier:
With Sendible’s tools, you can focus less on counting characters and more on making them count.
They stay on your profile permanently until you delete them.
No. All Highlight content must first be posted as a Story before it can be added to a Highlight.
There’s no official limit, but only the first few Highlights are visible before you have to swipe to see the rest. Keeping five to eight categories is a good rule of thumb.
You can only see viewers while the original store is live (within 24 hours). After that, Instagram only shows view counts, not usernames.
Tap the “+” button on your profile under Highlights to access your Story archive. From there, select any past Stories you’d like to include.
One of the most common questions about Instagram Highlights is whether you can track who's viewing them beyond the initial 48-hour Story window.
Unfortunately, this currently isn’t possible, but understanding how Instagram's viewing metrics work can help you make better strategic decisions.
What you can see: When a Story is active (within its first 48 hours), Instagram shows you a full list of usernames who viewed it. Once you add that Story to a Highlight, you'll continue to see this initial list.
However, Instagram only displays the total view count for any views that happen after the Story expires, not individual usernames.
For example, if your Story had 150 views in the first 48 hours and you can see all those usernames, after you add it to a Highlight and it gets 50 more views over the following week, you'll see a total count of 200 but no names for those additional 50 viewers.