Instagram Story Hacks: 20 Hot Tricks and Features (2/2)

hot Instagram Story Hacks

Keep reading to know more hot Instagram story hacks and features.

11. Layer text to add a shadow effect

For text that pops, try this double-up trick.

How to do it:

  1. Type out your text, then select all and copy
  2. Open a new text box and paste in that text
  3. With text still selected, click the rainbow wheel at the top ò the screen and choose your favorite color
  4. Shift that text ever so slightly and layer underneath the original text so it looks like a shadow effect

hot Instagram Story Hacks

12. Change text alignment in seconds

Put your Tinder skills to good use here: a quick swipe of the text will spice things up and shift things left, right, or back to center in a snap.

How to do it: As you’re typing, swipe quickly to the left side or right side to realign.

Hot Instagram Story sticker hacks

13. Turn your Story into a shopping spree

If you’ve had a Shop on Instagram, you can tag your products in each story with a product sticker.

When shoppers want to find more information about that cool hamster-print vest, they’ll just click on the sticker and head to your Shop to start their digital shopping spree. Explore more how to set up your Instagram shop here.

How to do it:

  1. Create your Instagram story and tap the sticker icon
  2. Select Product
  3. Choose the item from your product catalog
  4. Customize the product sticker to suit your brand

Source: Instagram

14. Change the color of a question sticker

To color coordinate or not to color coordinate? This is the question… or rather, a question about things to do with your question sticker.

How to do it:

  1. Tap the sticker icon and select Question
  2. Type out your question and then click the rainbow wheel at the top of the screen
  3. Continue to tap until the question sticker is your favorite color

hot Instagram Story Hacks

15. Access more gifs than ever

If there’s such a thing as too many gifs, we don’t want to hear it.

While Insta’s search allows you to peruse Giphy’s library, using the Giphy app itself allows you to create albums of your favorites for easy access—and you can share right from Giphy.

How to do it:

  1. Open the Giphy app and find for yourself a favorite gif
  2. Click on the paper-airplane icon to share this gif (or the heart icon if you’d like to favorite and post later)
  3. Select the Instagram icon and then click “Share to Stories”
  4. OR choose “Copy GIF” to copy and then paste into your Story

Pro tip: If you have your own homemade gifs that you’d like to share on Instagram Stories, save them to the camera roll. Then just copy and paste directly into a Story.

Hot Instagram Story video hacks

16. Answer questions on a Live Story

Answering your followers’ questions on an Instagram Live Story is like a fun interrogation you’re doing to yourself. (Need some help getting started with Instagram Live? Check out our step-by-step guide here.)

How to do it:

  1. Prompt your audience for questions in advance of your Q&A with a Questions sticker
  2. Once you’ve gone live, tap the question-mark icon at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Tap the question you’d like to answer, and it will appear on your Live screen as you broadcast
  4. Questions will be greyed out once its been selected so that you don’t pick it again

17. Make your own Instagram filter

You don’t need to be a programmer to make your own customized filter to use or share with the world. Spark AR Studio has a ton of tutorials and simple step-by-step tools to help you put your stamp on the world (and, more specifically, your followers’ faces).

How to do it: Here is a complete guide to create your own Instagram AR filters here.

 

Source: Spark AR Studio

18. Save your favorite filters

You want to have your Elf Ears filter at your fingertips, we get it. Thankfully, there’s a way to build an easy access library of your favorite effects.

How to do it:

  1. Open up your Instagram Stories camera
  2. Swipe through the filters line at the bottom of the screen until you get to the end
  3. Click to the icon of a magnifying glass that says “Browse Effects”
  4. Find an effect you like and click the download icon (a downward arrow)
  5. Next time you open your camera, that effect will be available to select
  6. If you see an effect on someone else’s story, click on the name of the effect (near the top of the screen) to save it from there

hot Instagram Story Hacks

19. Become a master of the Instagram Reel

Instagram Reel feature may be a bit of a TikTok copycat, but it’s fun all the same. Create a 15-second multi-clip video with music, special effects, and stickers and make your followers say wow with your dance moves. You can share on your Stories, but they’ll appear on the Explore page, too, so you can impress even more ‘Grammers with your Celine Dion lip synchs.

How to do it: Here is everything about Instagram Reels here!

hot Instagram Story Hacks

Source: Instagram

20. Use templates and design tools to pop your stories

Sure, a great chef can prepare a delicious meal with just a knife and a pan… but a kitchen full of tools will make creating a gourmet experience that much easier.

Likewise, branching out from the basic elements of Instagram Stories and incorporating external design and editing apps into your creative process will open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Is this a good metaphor, or are you just hungry?

How to do it:

  1. Try some of these fun Instagram Story Apps to bring your images and videos to the higher level
  2. Download these 12 free Instagram Stories templates and make ‘em your own.

Of course, no amount of hacks (or tips, or tricks, or gadgets or gizmos aplenty) can compare with good ol’ fashioned quality content. But we’ve got you covered there too: here are 20 creative Instagram Story ideas here to kick off some inspiration.

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