Instagram is Showing Recent Story Highlights Within the Native Stories Experience

Lindsey Gamble / Story Highlights in Stories 

Instagram has started showing recent Story Highlights within Stories.

When swiping through live Stories, some users (including myself) are now seeing Story Highlights from accounts they follow. These Story Highlights are marked by a quick “Story Highlights” text on the first Story in the collection. They also feature a “Highlights from XYZ” label at the top, along with information on when the highlight was created.

Why It Matters: Instagram has been experimenting with displaying Stories—specifically Story Highlights—through different experiences across the app, such as in the feed via a Recent Highlights section. More recently, it has been spotted notifying users that Story Highlights will be moved from their current location to the profile grid, with a dedicated tab—although this has yet to be officially confirmed.

Story Highlights were an exciting feature when they first launched but have since been somewhat forgotten by some creators, although many still leverage them to share affiliate products. Personally, I haven’t created a Story Highlight since 2021, but I likely have around 50 or so on my profile.

With these ongoing updates, Instagram seems focused on bringing more attention to the feature, especially in terms of discoverability. This could convince creators like myself, who have moved away from the feature, to start using it again.