Instagram Story Highlights Are Disappearing & People Are So Confused
I love looking at my friends' Story Highlights on Instagram. Most of the time, I'm too late to see their original Stories before 24 hours pass, so Highlights help keep me up-to-date on their whereabouts. However, something spooky is currently happening on the app. Instagram Story Highlights are disappearing, and people are super confused. If you're someone who lost a few Story Highlights on Tuesday, April 3, try not to panic — you're not alone.
Even if you did lose your Instagram Story Highlights, rest assured that you should be seeing them again soon. In a statement from Instagram to Elite Daily, the company says, "We discovered a bug that temporarily prevented some users from being able to see their Highlights. We quickly issued a fix to restore Highlights for everyone. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused." You should try restarting your app if you noticed your Story Highlights have disappeared. Deep breaths, everyone. It's going to be OK.
Instagram Story Highlights were announced on Dec. 5, 2017, and they've quickly become a popular feature on the app. In order to make them, Instagram users have to take saved Stories from a library within Instagram and add them to a Highlight. Once the Highlight is finished, they have to name it — and voila! They have an Instagram Story Highlight. The feature gives users' profiles a personal touch, and allows them to show off their Stories after one day has passed. Think of Highlights as "forever Stories" that Instagram users can refer to every time they visit a profile (until now, I guess).
Of course, people began to panic when Instagram Story Highlights started disappearing early afternoon on April 3. Based off distraught tweets, there was no rhyme or reason why certain Story Highlights disappeared — they just did. Instagram users were devastated and confused, and I can't help but feel a little bad for anyone who lost a Highlight or two.
People were straight up sobbing.
Others were simply confused.
Some people were pretty mad about it.
See? People take their Instagram Story Highlights pretty dang seriously, and losing them caused a collective panic across social media. I'm sure these people regained hope in the app after realizing that the bug has been fixed. Rejoice, Insta-world!
If you're someone who had no idea Story Highlights even existed on Instagram (where have you been?!), then allow me to explain in detail how they work. Instagram Stories are basically archived Stories that you can pin to your profile, and they're simple to create. In order to make one, go to your profile and then hit the circle that says "New" underneath the space for Story Highlights. Once you're there, you'll be taken to a library with your archived Instagram Stories. After that, you'll have to choose the archived Stories that you want to include in a Highlight. Once you've chosen the Stories you want to add to the Story Highlight, press "Next" and then give your Highlight a name. After you give your Highlight a name, you can choose which piece of media you want for your cover, and then you're done!
As you can see, Instagram Story Highlights are important for users who wish to share Stories on their pages without worrying about them being deleted. In fact, they're so important that the entire internet had a meltdown when they were temporarily deteled from users' pages. If you noticed your Instagram Story Highlight disappeared today, make sure you restart your app. Your Stories will likely come back, because the bug has been fixed.
