Instagram Stories are among our favorite tools on Instagram. We absolutely love how versatile and authentic these are. Oh, and how many creative possibilities they offer. Every week it seems like the guys and gals from Instagram have a new rollout prepared to keep us even more hooked. And we simply cannot wait to discover a new update and put our creative muscles to work.

But new rollouts and fresh tools aren’t the only things that make Instagram Stories a treat. Truth is, there are loads of current features that are still under-used. From cool tricks and gimmicks to simply lesser-known tools, today we’re going to go through the pro tips that will help you create even better Instagram Stories. Our aim is to make you giggle with enthusiasm and trigger your creative muse (or evil genius, you’ll understand later).

Put a selfie sticker on your Instagram Story

Yes. This is a thing. Call it picture in picture or simply awesome. No matter what name you stick on it (couldn’t help the wordplay), it’s guaranteed to be a funky way to create an Instagram Story. And it doesn’t even have to be a selfie. The pic you take is only limited to your inspiration or your imagination. Here’s how it works:

1. Open Instagram Stories
2. Take, record or upload a Story
3. Open the stickers feature
4. Select the “camera” icon
5. Take the selfie
6. Move the selfie picture to your favorite spot

That’s it! Now you’ll have a double-meaning, double-trouble Instagram Story. You can play with this feature as much as you want. And, once your creative juices get flowing, we’re certain you’re going to produce some very cool Instagram Stories.

Turn Live photos into Boomerang Instagram Stories

Ever wondered what other purposes you could find for Live Photos? Great! ‘Cause we have an awesome solution: you can turn them into Boomerang Stories. Don’t worry, no magic tricks. Just some simple, easy steps. Here’s how the deal works:

1. Take a live photo or select a Live photo you already have
2. Open Instagram Stories and upload the photo you have taken/selected
3. Tap and hold the photo for a fast conversion to Boomerang

That’s it. A simple way of turning otherwise “not so useful” Live Photos into something really fun.

Create a revealing post in Instagram Stories

If up until now you haven’t used the brush tools that much, it’s high time you started. And no, we’re not talking about using the brush too much all at once. Well, because you don’t have to. Here’s the thing! Even if you want to fill in the whole screen with a single color, you don’t need to brush brush brush. Instead, follow these steps:

1. Open Instagram Stories in Normal Mode
2. Upload a photo and select a brush
3. Tap and long hold on a color
4. Ta-da!

Now, if you want to reveal a little bit of the photo behind, simply select the eraser tool and erase away.

Pretty neat, right?

Spread the rainbow in your Instagram Stories

Writing in colors is cool. But you know what’s even cooler than that? Writing in the colors of the rainbow. And no, you won’t have to do a boresome one by one letter selection. Sure, you could. But we promised you the pro way to do things and we’re definitely going to deliver!

Okay, so first things first: select the text you want to turn into a rainbow. Now, with one finger tap and hold any color. With another finger hold on tight to the blue text selector line. So far, so good. The next and final step is to move both fingers at the same speed. That’s it!

Actually, it took us a bit of time to get our coordination and speed right. But in the end, it was totally worth it. After the 5th try, the rainbow was there! And the good news is that the more you practice, the better you’ll get at it. Now let’s go put rainbow texts on all of our Stories!

Play some music with your Instagram Stories

I think we can all agree that life is so much more interesting with music. The same rule applies when we’re talking about Instagram Stories. With a cool beat attached to them, your Stories can be so much more compelling. Instagram has recently announced that it plans to introduce the native feature to Instagram Stories. However, until then, here’s a cool trick.

1. Open the Music app on your phone (whatever that might be, according to your type of phone).
2. Hit play on your favorite song.
3. Open Instagram Stories and record a video

Neat, right? Although this method is kind of rudimentary, we think it’s a good-enough trick until the real-deal feature gets here. Why miss out on a totally awesome thing when you can DIY?

Mute the Instagram Stories you don’t want to see

Didn’t know you could do this? Yet here we are, sharing this evil genius secret. While this might not help you with your social media strategy, it will win you valuable time. If there’s an account you simply need to follow but don’t want to see their stories, then you can simply choose to skip them.

To hide the irrelevant Instagram Stories from your feed simply tap and long-hold that specific Instagram Story icon (be it from a user or a hashtag). Then, when the options menu pops up, hit Mute. If you have a change of heart and want to reopen “communication”, the unmuting process works the same. Tap plus long-hold to open the menu and unmute. There, you’ve just won some valuable time. Because in the age of digital, even the slimmest millisecond matters.

Excited to use Instagram Stories like a Pro?

Here at Preppr, we’re always getting ready for the next awesome thing on Instagram Stories. And, like always, we want to spread the joy and be your sidekick. Whether we’re talking about helping you manage Instagram or discovering the newest updates, we’re an app and blog you can count on. However, we’re also highly excited to see how you implement all the strategies we talk about. We have so much trust in your creativity that we’re eager to see what you come up with. So, give us your thoughts and share your stories with us! Down in the comments below or on our Preppr Instagram page. Ah, and don’t forget about our 10 days free trial.

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