Tech Reference

How to make Instagram highlight covers for the Story Highlights on your profile page

instagram story
It should only take a few moments to make a custom Instagram highlight cover. Shutterstock
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It's possible to post highlights of your Instagram Stories to preserve a selection of your stories, which usually disappear after 24 hours. 

After you post Instagram Stories, they'll be saved in a private Stories Archive in your account. You can turn any of these stories into "Highlights," which will appear publicly on your profile page. 

Each highlight has a cover photo, and the default cover option is the first photo or video within that highlight. But it's easy to change the highlight cover to another image so it looks exactly the way you want on your profile. 

Here's how to do it. 

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How to make Instagram highlight covers

1. Launch the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android phone. 

2. Tap the profile icon on the far right of the bottom menu. 

3. Find your highlights under your profile bio and select the one you want to edit the cover of. 

Highlight1
Tap the highlight you want to change the cover for.  Meira Gebel/Business Insider

4. In the bottom right-hand corner, tap the three horizontal dots above the word "More" — this will access the highlights menu. 

Highlight2
Tap More.  Meira Gebel/Business Insider

5. Select Edit Highlight from the pop-up menu. 

Highlight3
Select Edit Highlight.  Meira Gebel/Business Insider

6. Under Edit Highlight, tap Edit Cover. 

Highlight4
Select Edit Cover.  Meira Gebel/Business Insider

7. Toggle through your highlights to find the photo you want to use as the cover. If the photo you want to use as the highlight's cover is not already in your highlights, you must add it. 

8. Resize it to your liking. 

Highlight5
Once you've selected and resized your cover photo, tap Done.  Meira Gebel/Business Insider

9. Tap Done in the upper right-hand corner, and once more to save your changes.

Highlight7
Your highlight cover will now reflect the changes.  Meira Gebel/Business Insider

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Meira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland, Oregon. She writes about business, culture, and technology for Insider. Her work has been featured in Digital Trends, Willamette Week, USA Today, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and San Francisco State University.  Feel free to reach out to her on Twitter, where she can be found most of the time, @MeiraGebel.