Instagram Highlights vs. Stories: How Long They Last and How to Save Them

Stories and highlights look the same when you watch them: full-screen photos and short videos that you tap through. The difference is how long they stay around and where you find them. If you're trying to find something an account posted, or save it before it's gone, that difference matters.

Stories usually last 24 hours

A new story shows up in the row of circles at the top of the Instagram app, and the account's profile picture gets a colored ring around it. After 24 hours the story disappears from both places. Instagram Plus subscribers can use Story Extend to keep a story up for another 24 hours.

It isn't deleted, though. If the account has its archive switched on, and it's on by default, Instagram moves the story into a private archive that only the owner can see. From there the owner can share it again or add it to a highlight.

Highlights stay until the owner removes them

Highlights are the circles under the bio, each with a name and a cover image. They're made from stories: the owner picks stories from the archive and pins them to the profile as a named group. A highlight stays there until the owner edits or deletes it, so some accounts have highlights that are several years old.

The cover doesn't have to be one of the clips. Owners can upload any picture for it, which is why so many accounts use simple icons or plain colors to label their highlights.

Accounts tend to use them in predictable ways. A restaurant might keep one for the menu and another for opening hours. A small shop often has highlights for reviews and shipping. Creators collect tutorials, or answers to questions they get asked a lot.

A long highlight can hold dozens of clips. In the Instagram app you tap the right side of the screen to skip ahead and press and hold to pause. That's fine for a few clips, but slow when you're hunting for one particular menu page.

Who can see them

Both follow the account's privacy setting. If the account is public, anyone can see its stories and highlights. If it's private, only approved followers can. Stories shared to a Close Friends list go a step further and are only shown to the people on that list.

The viewer list works the same way for both. The owner can see who watched a story for 48 hours after it was posted. After that they can still see the story, in the archive or in a highlight, but not who viewed it. Our guide to who can see that you viewed a story has the details.

Side by side

	Stories	Highlights
How long they last	Usually 24 hours	Until the owner removes them
Where you find them	The story row and the ring around the profile picture	The circles under the bio
Viewer list	For 48 hours after posting	For 48 hours after the original story was posted
Saving from a public account	Only while the story is live	Any time

How to save highlights from a public account

Instagram doesn't let you download someone else's highlights. You can take screenshots one frame at a time, or use a viewer with a download button.

With the Instagram highlight viewer:

1. Type the account's username, or paste a link to the profile, and tap Search.
2. The results open on the Highlights tab.
3. Tap a highlight to open it, then tap Download under any photo or video you want to keep.

The clips in a highlight appear together on one page, so you can scroll straight to the one you're after instead of tapping through every clip before it. Photos download at full size, and videos keep their sound.

If a profile doesn't show any highlights, either the account hasn't made any, or it's private. StoryLurk only opens highlights on public accounts, and it doesn't ask for your Instagram login.

While you're looking at an account, the Instagram profile viewer shows the profile picture at full size. Instagram itself only shows it as a small circle.

Making your own highlights

If you post stories and want to keep one on your profile:

1. Go to your profile and tap New, the circle with a plus sign under your bio.
2. Pick the stories you want from your archive and tap Next.
3. Give the highlight a name and a cover, then add it to your profile.

You can also add a story to a highlight from the story itself. Open it and tap Highlight at the bottom of the screen. To change or delete a highlight later, press and hold its circle on your profile.

Which one should you check?

If you're looking for something an account posted today, check its stories in the Instagram story viewer. If it's older than a day, look through the highlights. If it isn't in either, the owner has deleted it or kept it in their private archive, and nobody else can see it there.