Stories are short photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours. However, users can save these Stories as Highlights on their profile, allowing them to live forever.
With this new experimental feature, Instagram wants to bring back those Highlights you might have missed. They’ll appear at the bottom of the Stories bar—the bar at the top of your feed where you see Stories from people you follow.
Meta – Instagram’s parent company – confirmed that the feature is being tested with a small group of users, emphasizing its commitment to continually improving social connections through Stories.
Social media expert Ahmed Ghanem was the first to notice the change. He said it’s easy to miss updates from friends as Instagram continues to evolve with new features. However, it’s worth noting that the feature doesn’t show regular Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, but only Highlights that users choose to keep.
Additionally, these Highlights only appear after you’ve finished watching all of your current Stories in the Stories bar. So if you follow a lot of people and don’t often watch all of their Stories, you might not see Highlights.
This move from Instagram could signal a broader effort to prioritize content from friends and family, especially as the platform increasingly focuses on short videos and algorithmic recommendations. A feature like this could help users make sure they don't miss important updates from those closest to them.
