How to Put Multiple Pictures on Instagram Story (+Hidden Features)

According to a survey by Hubspot, over 400 million Instagram users view Stories daily and nearly 67% of users surveyed have clicked on links within branded Stories. Whether you're using Instagram Stories to promote your brand or just to share your life, there are occasions when you need to put multiple pictures on Instagram Story.

In this blog, you will learn:

• -How to add multiple photos as carousel for Instagram Story;
• -How to put add multiple pictures to one Instagram Story using the layout feature;
• -Or you can use the photo sticker feature more freely.

We also included tricks to add a pure background, a color gradient background or use image as the background while adding multiple images to one Instagram story.

1. Add Multiple Photos to Instagram Story as Carousel

Carousel posts are a powerful tool for captivating audiences, which is also true for Instagram Stories. By adding multiple photos, you can create more immersive and engaging content. This is especially beneficial for the following scenarios and beyond:

• -Brand mythos
• -Photo dumps
• -Product debuts
• -Behind-the-scenes looks
• -Step-by-step guides
• -Vlogs and travel journals

Follow the steps below to add multiple photos to Instagram Story in carousel style:

Step 1. Tap the + button to start creating an Instagram story.

You can tap the + button at the bottom, or next to your profile to add a new Instagram story.

Step 2. Select camera roll or a custom album from your photo library.

Tips: If you cannot find a specific album, make sure you have granted access for Instagram to visit those photos and albums.

You can manage the photo access settings in Settings > Privacy & Security > Instagram > Allow Photo Access.

Step 3. Hit the Select icon at the top right corner, then tap to choose multiple photos.

Step 4. Edit each photo, arrange their order, and post them to the Instagram Story.

Now you shall see more than one photo appear in your story. You can tap to view them one by one or wait for the auto play. The story will disappear in 24 hours unless you save the story to highlights.

2. Put Multiple Photos to One Instagram Story with the Photo Sticker Tool

If you don't want to upload multiple photos as separate stories, you can also make them appear on one screen using the photo sticker tool.

Step 1. Tap the + icon to add a story as you normally do.

As for the background, you can have pure colors, gradient colors, images or collages as the background (canvas). I will show you how to create each type of background below, but now let's focus on the sticker part.

Step 2. Tap on the Sticker icon at the top of your Instagram UI.

It's a face icon between the Aa icon and the music icon.

Step 3. Hit the Photo sticker or the Frames sticker.

Select a photo from your local storage and repeat the steps if you want to paste multiple photos into the Story.

Hint: The Frames sticker is so fun to use. Your friends or customers will see the blurry image and they have to shake the phone to reveal the photo, just like the Polaroid picture – we need to develop it!

Tips:

1. You can tap on the photo to change its shape.

2. Once you have added multiple photos to the Story on the "canvas", you can arrange the layer order. Simply long press on a photo, and you shall see a layer order icon (see screenshots below). Don't release your finger, go drag it up and down to reorder its layer.

3. Likewise, you can firmly press on a photo and drag it to the lock icon to lock it. It prevents you from accidentally moving or messing up with the pictures as there are a bunch of them on the canvas.

4. You can also paste multiple photos as stickers to the story. Instagram will automatically remove its background and make it a freeform shape, instead of a normal frame shapes.

Here is how: instead of choosing the photo sticker, hit the Cutouts sticker as shown below.

Now as promised, here are tricks to create one of those three kinds of background.

Using a Pure Background

Creating a pure background is especially tricky, as the auto-fill feature is hidden with gestures.

Step 1. On the story screen, choose whatever photo you like from the camera roll or take one in realtime.

It doesn't matter, as we are going to cover it with a solid color later on.

Step 2. Hit the … three-dot icon on the top right corner, and select Draw.

Step 3. Select the preferred solid color, and move your finger onto the effective canvas area.

Now here's the trickiest part: just long tap on the screen, and Instagram will fill it with the chosen color. You don't have to draw it manually to cover up the entire screen!

Tips: If you prefer a degree of transparency over solid color, go select the highlighter tool instead of the pen tool. The background image will be revealed vaguely.

Once you finished setting up the pure background color, you can start adding multiple images to one Instagram story with the photo stickers.

Using a Color Gradient Background

Step 1. Once you are on the story creation screen, hit the Aa icon on the left sidebar.

It's above the infinite icon and the layout icon.

Step 2. Tap the Aa circle icon at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3. Change the color palette by hitting the O circle icon at the top of the screen.

Then you can go on using the Photo sticker features to add multiple images to Instagram story.

Using an Image Background

This is more obvious in UI than the previous two hidden features.

-Take a photo: tap the circle button to snap a photo.

-Use an existing photo: tap the photo thumbnail icon at the bottom left corner.

-Use image collages as the background: hit the Layout icon at the left sidebar.

3. Add Multiple Photos Using the Layout Feature

Besides image carousels and photo stickers, you can also easily create a photo collage to put multiple photos into one Instagram story – using the Instagram Layout feature.

Step 1. Access the Story screen and tap on the Layout icon on the left sidebar.

Tips 1. You can tap it again to change the layout styles, depending on the number of photos you are going to put into the Story.

Tips 2. Hit the Settings icon on the top right corner. Here you can manage various settings for the Instagram Story, such as whether to save the Story to camera roll, archive, etc.

Step 2. Add multiple images to the layout grids for Instagram Story, apply effects and edit the images.

Step 3. Post the image grids to your Story.

Tips:

1. When adding photos to the layout grids, you can tap the snap icon to take a photo, or add an existing photo by tapping the thumbnail icon at the bottom left corner.
2. You can switch photos by tapping on it to reveal the delete icon and load another photo.
3. If you don't want the Story to disappear in 24 hours, you can opt to add the story to the existing highlights, or create a new highlight. Highlights will appear under your profile photo.
4. You can also add the story to the post or a reel.

4. Using Collage Apps for Custom Layout

The native layout feature in Instagram only offers 6 styles. If you want to add multiple images to Instagram Story, and at the same time display them in other stylized collages, you can use third party collage apps for a trendy layout.

It's worth a separate write up of Instagram story layout ideas, and I will be working on it soon.

Bonus Tips

1. How to Add Multiple Photos to the Highlight in Instagram Story

You can directly tap the Highlight icon under your profile photo > tap the More icon (three-dot …) > Edit highlight. Then select Stories to be featured in the Highlight. Or you can create a new Highlight, and select Stories for it.

2. How to Put Multiple Photos to One Instagram Story on a Computer

This feature isn't available on computers, but it is available on these devices. Select a device to learn more about this feature.

Officially, Instagram doesn't support the Story feature on computers. It is available on iPhone and Android. Still, you can use social media management tool to post Instagram Stories.

3. How to Add Multiple Photos to Instagram Story with Music

After following one of the four ways above to put multiple photos, you can add the music to the Story with a music sticker, or follow the tricks here when the music sticker is gone.

4. Download Instagram Videos and Stories to Save Them Forever

When you come across nice Instagram content, you probably want to save it before it's gone, that's when VideoProc Converter AI comes to your aid. This free downloader and recorder lets you easily save videos to MP4 or MP3 format, preserving their original quality. It works for Instagram Feeds, IGTV, lives, and more.

Simply copy and paste the link for VideoProc to auto analyze the video, then Hit the download button. For content not downloadable, you can also use the built-in high-quality recorder.