How to put photo collages in your Instagram Stories

If you’re confused about how your friends are posting photo collages in their Instagram Stories, you’re not alone.

Instagram added its Layout feature to Stories in late 2019, which allows you to post a grid of your photos in a Story. Previously, you could only make a collage of photos with the Sticker hack, which is tricky and counterintuitive. While the Sticker hack is harder to navigate, it does give you more creative freedom as it allows you to place as many photos as you like over one background photo.

Here is how to use both ways to post photo remixes in your Instagram Story.

How to add a photo grid to your Instagram Story using Layout:

1. Open Instagram.

2. Select the blue plus sign next to your profile picture.

3. Select the Layout icon (white grid).

Select the Layout icon.
Credit: Screenshot: instagram

4. Select the Layout format you want.

Choose the Layout format you want.
Credit: screenshot: Instagram

5. Add photos by selecting the square in the bottom lefthand corner.

This will take you to your camera roll, where you have to add photos one by one. We found that the order photos are placed in the Layout grid to be counterintuitive, so you might have to play around to get the order of photos that you want.

6. Select your profile picture in the bottom lefthand corner to post your Story.

A finished Layout story.
Credit: screenshot: Instagram

How to use Stickers to make a photo collage in your Instagram Story:

1. Open Instagram.

2. Select the blue plus sign next to your profile picture

3. Tap the square in the bottom left corner to select the photo you want to be the background of your Instagram Story.

4. Once you have your background photo uploaded, exit the Instagram app and open your Camera Roll.

5. Navigate to the photo you want to layer on top of the background photo.

6. Tap the blue arrow (the upload symbol) in the bottom lefthand corner of the screen.

Tap the blue arrow.
Credit: Screenshot: Apple

7. Scroll down and tap “Copy Photo.”

Select “Copy Photo”
Credit: screenshot: Apple

8. Exit Camera Roll and Open Instagram.

9. The photo you copied should appear in the bottom lefthand corner of your Instagram Story with the option to “Add Sticker.” Tap “Add Sticker” and drag the photo and adjust its size to your preference using pinch-to-zoom. (You have to tap “Add Sticker” very quickly or the picture will disappear and you have to go back and repeat the process.)

Tap “Add Sticker” to add the photo.
Credit: screenshot: Instagram

10. Repeat with as many photos as you want to feature on your Story. To delete a sticker, drag it down until a trash can appears and then drag it into the trash can.

11. Select your profile picture in the bottom lefthand corner to post your Story.