Instagram has become the quintessential social media app. If you didn’t share it on Instagram, did it even happen? With various sharing options available at our disposal, like Posts, Reels, and Stories, it’s perfect for sharing different kinds of content.

Stories are rather a fan favorite in that department. For the average user, most content on Instagram gets shared on stories. They only stay visible for 24 hours, unless you decide to add them as highlights on your profile. They also make it possible to share content on Instagram with selected followers, whether it’s your ‘Close Friends’ list or by choosing to hide the story from particular users.

One of the recent trends that have gained traction is to share multiple photos on a single Instagram story. If you, too, want to hop onto this bandwagon and share collages on your story, it’s rather easy. There’s no need for a third-party app. There are two ways to make a collage on your Instagram story from within the app. Let’s dive in and see how to use both.

Creating a Collage in Story using the Stickers option

There’s now been a ‘Photos’ option in the Stickers section of the Instagram story for quite a while. It lets you add photos from your gallery to your current Instagram story. It’s one of the best ways to create a collage because of the freedom you get with it. You can add as many photos as you like and also rearrange or size them without any restrictions.

To get started, open the Instagram app on your phone. Make sure you’re on the Home tab. Then, tap the ‘Your Story’ option in the upper-left corner of your feed. You can also swipe right on the screen to open the screen to add a story from the left.

Now, either choose a background from your gallery or click a photo by covering your camera to get a black background.

Then, swipe up anywhere on the image to open the ‘Stickers’ panel. You can also tap the ‘Stickers’ icon from the option at the top-right corner of the screen.

When the stickers panel opens, swipe up until you find the option for ‘Photos’/ ‘Gallery’ and tap it. On iOS devices, it’ll look like the infamous ‘Photo’ icon that has a landscape on it. On Android devices, the icon will have two overlapping tiles with a ‘+’ on it.

Your gallery will open. Tap one of the photos you want to add to the collage to add it to the story. To add a photo from the front camera, tap the ‘Camera’ icon / ‘Selfie’ option from the Stickers panel instead and capture the photo. You can also add stickers to the story on either device.

No matter which way you decide to go, the photo will appear on the story page. You can move it anywhere on the page, or change its size. Drag it anywhere on the page to change its position. Use two fingers and pinch in/ out to resize it.

Add more photos similarly from the Stickers panel until your collage is complete. Then, rearrange and resize each photo until you’re happy with the collage.

You can also change the appearance of the photo by tapping on it. There are shapes like a star, heart, square, rectangle, circle, etc. available to choose from. Keep tapping the image until you get to the shape you like.

To delete an image, drag it towards the bottom of the screen and drop it onto the trash can icon that appears.

Once the collage is complete, share it either to your story with all followers, close friends list, or selected friends as a message.

Creating a Collage using the Layout option

Instagram also has a layout option to create a collage. The layout option is the true option to create a collage; it lets you add images in the grids of configurations, such as 2×2, 1×2, 1×3, 2×3, etc.

Using the layout option is quicker since you don’t have to do any positioning or sizing manually. But it’s also more rigid and trades off the freedom to display the images however you choose in the process.

To create a collage using Layout, swipe right from the Home tab to open the screen o add a story on the left. Then, tap the ‘Layout’ option from the options on the right edge of the screen.

By default, a 2×2 grid for making a collage will load. To change the layout, tap the ‘Change Grid’ icon on the right edge of the screen.

A layover menu with other grid options to choose from will appear; tap the layout you want to choose.

Now, swipe up on the screen or tap the thumbnail on the bottom left to choose the photo for the first tile in the grid from your gallery. You can also click a photo from the camera by tapping the ‘Shutter’ icon at the bottom.

To adjust the photo, pinch with two fingers and swipe right or left. Once you choose or click the photo for the first tile, the next tile will be automatically selected. Repeat the process for each tile one by one.

To delete a photo, tap and hold the tile and the ‘Delete’ icon will appear on it. Tap it to delete the current photo and then, you can choose another photo for that tile.

Once all photos are selected, tap the ‘Done’ option (tick mark) at the bottom.

Then, you can share the collage on your story, with your close friends’ list, or with selected friends via DM.

Making collages on Instagram stories is the best way to share something when you can’t decide on a single photo but don’t want to share multiple stories either. With these two options at your disposal, you can go whichever way suits you best.