Instagram Stories have got me hooked. Which is quite sad for Snapchat since I just wrote this post (<– Click to read!) about growing my audience there and searching for fun people to follow.
I’m not totally over Snapchat yet, but since starting to use Instagram Stories I’ve already been neglecting Snapchat way, way more than I already had.
But until last week, I was an IG Story watcher and not user. The features aren’t super obvious TBH, and it took me a few days by accident to figure out how to add pictures from my gallery instead of having to take the picture from my camera.
This was a game changer — because I plan out most of my IG content, and now I can plan my Stories content as well (new blog post about this coming soon!!)
I figured since I found this feature basically on accident, other people would benefit from this quick tutorial!
How to Add Photos from Your Gallery to Your Instagram Story
*note, I use an Android but iPhone users are smart enough to figure out where it varies, right?
1. I probably don’t have to explain this step, but I figured I would just start at the beginning. To get a story going, you click that little camera icon in the top left of your IG feed.
2. You’ll enter camera mode, and it SEEMS like all you can do is take a picture or a Boomerang. I knew there must be more because I kept seeing bloggers post pictures on their stories from their photo shoots. Like, professional pics. But turns out, that feature is hidden.
3. Slide your finger up and you’ll get your gallery! The biggest limitation is that it only shows photos that were taken in the last 24 hours. So if you wanted a picture from before that, you’ll have to take a screenshot so it appears in the photo selector.
4. From there, just select a pic and you’re done! Super simple, I’m really not sure why this feature is hidden.
BONUS! If you want to see who viewed your Instagram story, or delete a photo you don’t like anymore (we’ve all been there…), you just watch your own story and then slide UP again and you’ll get a menu to do all this stuff:
Psstt… Want to know how I am planning on using my Instagram Story to promote my business? Get on my email list here and I’ll send you the post when it’s live!