8 Tips For Using Instagram Stories Like A Pro

Don’t stop learning all the crazy things you’re able to do with Instagram Stories like the pro you are. Day by day we keep seeing more and more features, and we can’t stop and just stare at it. Keep innovating with everything you have. Perhaps, something that looks like a simple and necessary element could be the key to a new kind of content, and you have to discover it.

Set your mind free, and let the inspiration dominate you. To do so, we want to present you with eight fantastic tips to make you an Instagram Stories pro.

1. Freeze the image or video

We know that 10 seconds is not enough when you have to explain something complex. But, don’t worry, Instagram knows it too, and we have the solution for you. Therefore, there’s something you can do when writing a lot of text or needing to your followers to take a screenshot.

First, announce that you need their attention for the following stories. Secondly, tell them what you need from them, whether it’s reading carefully or taking a screenshot. Finally, you need to tell them to press and hold on the centre of the screen so that the image or video will freeze. It’s so simple that everyone will enjoy whatever you prepare for interaction.

2. Move through stories

Running through stories may seem something intuitive. Although, many people still don’t get how to move forward or backward on a user’s stories and stories feed. Thus, we need you to understand it first, so that you can explain it to your users when you need them to take this action. Firstly, you can either swipe left or right to move between the Instagram Stories feed. Similarly, you only need to tap on right or left of the screen when moving between a user’s story.

When understanding this perfectly, you can start creating interaction using this movement. A perfect example is when you indicate your followers to tap fast, so they find out an animation. In fact, there’s plenty of games you can create with this function that seems simple. But, remember that we aim to take the best from every single feature we have.

3. What kind of pictures can you upload

There’s only one kind of limitation when uploading something to Stories. We’re talking about 24 hr content, which means that you can only upload something you’ve sent, created or received from the last 24 hrs of activity. But, don’t you worry, there are some solutions. The hard option is to ask someone to send you that image again or download the archive from an email once more. The easy one is to take a screenshot, or edit your images so that they will move to your recent activity.

4. How to upload a different size picture

Taking a screenshot is not only worthy of enabling you to upload that old image again. Sometimes, you don’t like the way Stories adapt your picture when uploading because you want it in a regular size. Even though this can seem hard to solve, the truth is that the solution is simpler than we thought. So, the only thing you need to do is open the image in your gallery. Secondly, you have to take a screenshot. Then, go to your Stories feed and continue to have fun with it!

5. You can stalk but not too much

Don’t worry if you have a crush on someone, and want to share that picture you saw with your friends. Although, you shouldn’t risk too much – and be careful either way. You can always take a screenshot without being caught. There’s no way (yet) of knowing when someone takes a screenshot from our story. But, we will be able to do so soon, surely. In the meantime, we can still be obsessed with someone and save as many stories as we want.

Even if no one knows if you took a screenshot, you can always hide your Stories from people you don’t like. It’s as simple as going to the settings section and selecting Stories features. Hence, you can “hide from” and select as many people you want. We know that privacy is a funny thing on Instagram and Facebook, so we should be aware of every new feature.

6. Other tools to edit your Stories

Of course, you can be even more creative when it comes to your Stories. It’s not necessary that you only use Instagram’s tools and settings. Luckily, we’ve got a lot of options to tune up our images and make them rock the platform. Furthermore, it opens up the possibility for us to create a unique style and be recognised by our faithful fans and those who we are about to meet.

From all the options the Internet has to offer you, we want to share these with you.

1. Font Candy: “Font Candy puts you in the creator’s chair and allows you to produce custom designs in seconds. Add quotes, artwork, filters, colors, and even layer multiple images!”
2. Over: “With Over, choose from millions of images, graphics, and fonts to overlay, add and edit text and design photos to boost your social media profile.”
3. Kawaii Photo: “Kawaii Photo Booth allows you to decorate your photos with kawaii styled stickers. Kawaii means cute, lovable or adorable in Japanese and that is exactly what this app is all about.”

However, if what you want is something different, you can always go to Snapchat and come back. In other words, record your video with a filter, download it, and upload it on your Instagram Stories feed. The options are limitless.

7. Create things with colour brushes

“I want a colour background” – say no more! Now, you can create all colour backgrounds, and it is as easy as pressing a button. The only thing you need to do is go straight to your Instagram Stories upload section, take a random pic, go to your brushes button and follow these steps. First of all, decide what type of background you want – either bold or translucent. Secondly, select your favourite colour. Lastly, press and hold on the screen and let the magic happen.

8. Don’t!

The primary rule is not to post a thousand Stories unless it’s something to play with as we explained above. Please, don’t you dare abuse the filters because no one likes too much of something. Similarly, don’t make it too elaborate because Stories is something that looks professional, but with a natural and fresh touch.

How do you feel now that you’re an Instagram Stories expert? Tell us what you think, and please share your pro tips with the community. Don’t stop learning and creating the best content yet!