Alice Kotlyarenko  December 15, 2019

At its core, Instagram Highlights is a simple feature, but using it can be confusing. For example, you might have trouble figuring out how to add custom covers or how to delete the Highlights you no longer want. But don’t worry, we’ll walk you through everything you can do with Instagram Highlights, from creating to deleting one.

If you don’t have any Instagram Highlights yet, you can create one either from your current story or from the Stories Archive. That, of course, means you need to have the archiving feature on. It’s usually enabled by default, but here’s how you can double-check that and switch on the Stories Archive if need be:

1. From your profile, tap on the Menu icon in the top right-hand corner.
2. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Story Controls.
3. Scroll down to Save to Archive and switch the toggle on.

Once archiving is on, you can go ahead and create your first Highlight. Here’s how to create your first Instagram Highlight by adding your current story to it:

1. Open your Instagram story.
2. Tap on the Highlight icon at the bottom.
3. In the Add to Highlights pop-up, tap New.
4. Enter a name for the highlight and edit the cover if you want.
5. Finally, tap Add, and then Done.

If you want to create an Instagram Highlight using a story you posted a while ago, you can do that, too. Here’s how:

1. From your profile, tap on the Archive icon in the upper left-hand corner (it’s shaped like a clock).
2. Tap on the … icon in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Now tap Create Highlight.
4. Check all of the stories you want to add to this new Highlight and tap Next.
5. Name your Highlight and adjust its cover.
6. Finally, tap Add and Done.

That’s it! Your first Instagram Highlight now appears on your profile. There’s also a New button next to it, so you can quickly create more Highlights.

Suppose you have an Instagram Highlight that’s topic-specific rather than centered around a certain place and time. This could be a series of funny photos of your cat or your favorite street art from around the globe.

In these cases, you’ll want to keep adding new stories to a Highlight you already have. Here’s how you do that:

1. Open the Highlight.
2. Tap More in the bottom-right corner.
3. Select Edit Highlight from the menu.
4. Switch to the Archive tab.
5. Check mark more stories you want to add to this Highlight.
6. Once ready, tap Done.

Voilà! The new story is there.

You may have noticed that when you create an Instagram Highlight, the app automatically picks the cover image from the stories you’re saving. You may also have noticed that big Instagram accounts often have custom Highlight covers—with their logos and in their brand colors, for example. How did they do that?

Here’s how you can add a custom cover for an Instagram Highlight you already have:

1. Open the Highlight and tap the More button in the lower left-hand corner.
2. Tap Edit Highlight, and then Edit Cover.
3. You’ll see your current cover up close and the list of covers you can choose from underneath it. Tap on the Image icon right next to those.
4. Select the custom cover from your photo library and adjust it.
5. When you’re ready, tap Done.

That’s really all there is to it. Of course, that implies you prepared a Highlight cover beforehand and saved it to the photo library on your phone.

To make a new Highlight with a custom cover, create the Highlight like you normally would, but make sure you tap Edit Cover and then hit that Image icon next to it to open your photo library.