Instagram Highlight Covers: How to Make and Change Them

To set an Instagram highlight cover, create the highlight from your profile, pick your stories, then tap Edit cover before you save it. To change the cover later, tap and hold the highlight, tap Edit Highlight, then Edit Cover, and choose a new image. Everything below uses the button names in the current app, plus design advice for covers that look clean and stay readable.

Create a highlight and choose its cover

Highlights keep stories on your profile after the 24 hours are up. Instagram's help center says a highlight stays visible until you remove it, and anyone you've allowed to see your stories can also see your highlights. You create them in the Instagram app for iPhone, iPad or Android.

On iPhone:

1. Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right.
2. Tap New. If you don't see New, tap Story highlight.
3. Select the story or stories you want in the highlight, then tap Next in the top right.
4. Tap Edit cover to choose a cover photo, and type a name for the highlight.
5. Tap Add in the top right.

On Android the steps are the same, with two small differences: New sits in the top right, and the final button is Done in the top right instead of Add.

On a computer, click your profile picture, click New (or Story highlight), enter a name and click Next, select your stories and click Next, then choose a cover photo and click Done.

To add a new story to a highlight you already have, open your story from your profile picture in the top left of your profile, tap More in the bottom right of the story, tap Highlight (on Android, tap Highlight in the bottom right), and pick the highlight.

Change the cover or name of an existing highlight

Instagram's help center says you can edit a highlight at any time by tapping it, tapping More in the bottom right, then tapping Edit highlight. You can also tap and hold the highlight on your profile, below Edit Profile, and tap Edit Highlight.

To swap the cover:

1. Tap and hold the highlight on your profile.
2. Tap Edit Highlight.
3. Tap Edit Cover.
4. Choose a new image, either from the stories in the highlight or from your camera roll.
5. Tap Done.

Choosing from your camera roll means you don't have to post the cover to your story first, so a plain graphic never shows up in your followers' story tray. Sked Social's walkthrough of changing highlight covers describes the same path.

To rename a highlight, open the same Edit Highlight screen and type a new name. On a computer, click the highlight, click Options in the top right, click Edit, enter the new name in the text box, then click Next and Done.

Remove stories or delete highlights

A highlight gets stale when it holds an old promo or a link that no longer works. Clean it up from your profile:

In the bulk view you can sort with Newest to oldest or filter with All dates, which helps when you want to clear out last year's sale highlights in one go.

What size should a highlight cover be

Instagram's help center does not give a size for highlight covers. A common recommendation, including Sked Social's, is to design on a 1080 x 1920 pixel canvas, the same shape as a story, which gives you a sharp image to work with.

Some practical advice that follows from how covers appear:

• Keep everything in the center. Covers show as small circles on your profile, so anything near the edges of a tall canvas gets cropped away. Place the icon or letter in the middle and leave plenty of space around it.
• Go bold and simple. A thin line drawing or small text turns into a smudge at that size. One thick icon reads better.
• Check it on your phone. After you save the cover, look at your profile at normal size. If you have to squint, simplify.

Instagram also doesn't publish a character limit for highlight names, so keep them short. One or two words, like "Menu", "Shop" or "Reviews", tends to look tidy under the circle.

Cover ideas for small businesses and creators

The covers that work best are rarely elaborate. The goal is a row that looks like it belongs to one brand and tells visitors where to tap. These are ideas to adapt, not rules:

• Brand color plus one icon. Pick your main brand color as the background and use a single white icon per highlight: a cup for the menu, a tag for prices, a star for reviews. Same color, same icon style, every time.
• Simple shapes. A solid circle, a single letter, or a soft gradient in your palette looks calm and makes the names do the work.
• Two alternating colors. If one color feels flat, alternate between two from your palette across the row.
• Your own photos, cropped tight. A bakery can use close crops of bread, a musician a crop of the album cover. Keep the crops consistent in tone so the row doesn't look random.
• Match your bio. If your bio and link page use a certain color or font, carry it into the covers so the whole profile feels like one place. Our Instagram bio ideas can help you line up the words, too.

Useful highlights for most small businesses: menu or services, prices, reviews, how to order, location and hours, and FAQ. For creators: new release, behind the scenes, press, collabs, and how to work with you.

Keep your link sticker stories in a highlight

A story with a link sticker disappears after 24 hours, but a highlight keeps it tappable on your profile. That makes highlights a good home for evergreen links: your shop, a booking page, a signup form or a new track. See how to add a link to your Instagram story for the sticker itself. In short, you add the Link sticker, enter the URL, and tap See Preview to check how it will look. Anyone who can see the story can tap the sticker to visit the link.

A few things to watch:

• Keep Stories Archive on. Stories you share are saved to your Stories Archive. If you turn off the archive in Settings, stories you share from then on are deleted after 24 hours, so you can't come back later and add them to a highlight.
• Archived stories can change. Instagram says some archived stories may have their music muted or their videos and gifs frozen. A story with a music sticker stays in the archive, but the sticker won't play music.
• Check the links now and then. When a promotion ends, remove that story from the highlight so visitors don't land on a dead page.

Point highlights to one page with Olaa

Your bio holds one link, and highlights work best when they send people somewhere that has everything. Olaa gives you one short link, olaa.im/yourname, that opens a page with all your links, music and video players that play on the page, Calendly bookings and Google Forms that open right there, and a QR code. The free plan includes one page with unlimited links and every look, font and background. Olaa Pro is $8 a month or $72 a year and adds products from Stripe, Etsy, Shopify or Gumroad (checkout happens in your shop and Olaa takes no cut), email signups sent to Mailchimp, and scheduled links, which are handy when a highlight promotes a launch date. Setup takes a few minutes and needs no code. Our guide to adding a link to your Instagram bio covers where the link goes, and the features page lists everything else.

FAQ

How do I change my highlight cover without posting it to my story?

Tap and hold the highlight, tap Edit Highlight, then Edit Cover, and choose an image from your camera roll instead of a frame from the highlight. Tap Done to save. The image becomes the cover without ever appearing in your story.

What is the Instagram highlight cover size?

Instagram does not state an official size. Designing on a 1080 x 1920 pixel canvas, the size of a story, is a common recommendation. Keep the icon or text in the center, since the cover shows as a small circle.

Why can't I find old stories to add to a highlight?

Stories you share are saved to your Stories Archive, unless the archive is turned off in Settings. Stories shared while it was off were deleted after 24 hours, so they can't be added. Turn the archive back on so new stories are saved.

Can I make highlights on a computer?

Yes. Click your profile picture, click New or Story highlight, name it, pick stories, choose a cover photo and click Done. To edit one later, click the highlight, then More or Options in the top right, then Edit.

Who can see my highlights?

Instagram's help center says anyone you've allowed to see your story can also see your highlights. Highlights stay on your profile until you remove them, even after the original stories expire.