How to Create Your Own Instagram Highlight Covers
If there is one thing I dread the most on Instagram, it’s the moment when an Instagrammer informs me to skip through the next few stories because they are updating their highlight covers.
Can I let you in on a little secret? You don’t have to do it that way. You can change your Instagram highlight covers without adding anything extra to your stories.
And I’m gonna show you how to do it.
So, here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m going to walk you through a few things including the different approaches you can choose from when creating our highlights and how to create your own Instagram highlight covers in Canva. Then we’ll upload those to your highlights.
IG Highlight Cover Inspiration
There are an endless number of approaches that you can take when making your covers. You can use solid colors, emojis, illustrations, photos, really anything!
I’ve linked some of my favorite highlight inspo below!
How to create your Instagram highlight covers in Canva on your Computer
- Login to your Canva Account
- In the search box, type “Instagram Story Highlight Cover” and choose the template name that populates there.
- Once the new window opens, you have 2 options:
- Choose a template from the left sidebar and customize it to match your brand color palette.
- Place a circle onto the canvas, scale it to be the same width as the page (should be 1080px). Then, using the position tool in the top right corner, align the circle to the center and the middle. This is the area you’ll design your cover in. Make the circle the color you want the background to be.
- To download the images:
- Click the Download button in the top right corner.
- Choose PNG and click download.
- You’ll have to upload these to a somewhere you can access from your mobile device. I like to use Dropbox and Google Drive.
- BUT, if you are working from a Mac & iPhone, you can use AirDrop by turning on bluetooth on both devices. Then it’s just a drag & drop. This is my favorite method!
How to create your Instagram highlight covers in Canva on your phone
- Open the Canva app on your phone. Or download it from the app store and login.
- In the search bar, search “Instagram Story Highlight Covers” and choose the one that pops up.
- At this point, you can choose either a blank version or a template.
- If you choose a blank template, place a circle on the canvas that is centered horizontally and vertically to give you boundaries to stay within.
- To download the images:
- There are 5 icons at the top. Click the one with the arrow pointing down to save your covers to your camera roll.
Now, let’s update your highlight covers
- Open Instagram and head to your profile.
- Tap on the highlight you want to update.
- Tap “More” in the bottom right corner where the 3 little dots are.
- Tap Edit Highlight.
- Tap Edit Cover
- Tap the photos icon at the bottom to select images from your camera roll.
- Choose the cover you want to use. Adjust the size and then press “Done.”
- Make sure that it looks the way you want it to, then press done again.
- Press “Done” one last time, exit out of the story highlight and look at your fancy new highlight cover!
That’s it!
Did you update your highlights? Share a link to your IG below so I can take a look at your fancy new covers!
Related: 4 MAJOR MISTAKES YOU’RE MAKING ON INSTAGRAM
I have never even heard of these! Thank you for such a thorough post. New subscriber here.
Wow, thank you! When it comes to some of the tech stuff I hate when directions don’t have enough detail so I wanted to make sure the directions were thorough. Thanks for subscribing!