Plan and schedule your Instagram Stories ahead of time to stay organized and keep your audience engaged!

Important:

• Instagram Stories Scheduling is available on current paid plans
• Instagram Stories can only be scheduled through app.later.com on desktop (not available for mobile)
• Each Instagram Stories board is equal to 1 Later post
• Instagram Stories can be published using Auto Publish to Instagram business profiles only
  • Instagram personal and creator profiles must use notification publishing. Switch to a business account
• Instagram stickers, trending audio/music/sounds, polls, links, and other effects are not available from within Later
  • If you want to use these features, schedule your Story for notification publishing and add them from the Instagram app
    
• Videos must be trimmed down to 60 seconds or shorter to be included in Stories
• Instagram Stories scheduled for Auto Publish must have an aspect ratio between 16:9 and 9:16
  

How to Schedule Instagram Stories

Schedule a New Story

1. From app.later.com on desktop, go to your Calendar 
2. Make sure the right Instagram profile is selected by clicking on it from the top of the Calendar page
   
   Note: Only one Instagram profile can be selected when scheduling Stories. The Stories button will not be visible if you have multiple profiles selected.
3. Click Stories in the top right to reveal the Stories timeline:
   
   
4. From the Side Library, select one or more media items
5. Drag them over to the Stories timeline, which will create a new scheduled Story and open up the Stories editor:
   
   
   Note: Stories timeslots are shown horizontally, with each horizontal block representing a 24-hour period. The blue line indicates the current time in your time zone, as set in your Account Settings.
6. You can fine-tune the time your Story is scheduled for from the top left of the Stories editor, as well as select your publishing method
   
   Note: If Auto Publish is enabled in your account, it will be selected by default.
   
7. To add another media item to your scheduled Story, drag it to the + area in the Stories editor below the timeline:
   
   Important: If you schedule multiple Stories for Auto Publish and one fails to publish, the subsequent Stories in that batch will fail as well. This is to avoid Stories being published out of order.
   
   • To remove a media item from your Story, click the x in the top right corner of that item

Now that you’ve added your Story’s media to the timeline, you’re ready to edit it!

Edit Your Story

1. From the Stories editor, click Edit on a media item to add text (photos only) and/or trim or crop it (photos & videos):
   
   
   Tip: Use the Instagram Stories crop option when editing!
2. Optionally, you can Add Clipboard Text in the textbox to the right of your media
   • If you’re using notification publishing, any text added here will be copied to your clipboard when you go to post your Story. This way, you can quickly paste it using the text tools in Instagram.
     
   Note: Stickers, audio (music), and other Instagram effects are not available from within Later, and cannot be applied to Stories scheduled for Auto Publish. If you use notification publishing, you can add these effects using Instagram’s tools before posting your Story.
3. You can rearrange media items by dragging & dropping them to change their order
   • To open it again, just click on your Story block in the Stories timeline
4. When you're done, click Save Story

Remove a Scheduled Story

You can delete a scheduled Story from your timeline at any time:

1. Click on your Story block from the timeline
2. Click the Discard Story button from the Stories editor
3. Click Delete to confirm

How to Publish Instagram Stories Using Notification Publishing

If you selected Send Notification as your publishing method while scheduling your Story, you will have to complete the publishing process when you receive the notification at your Story’s scheduled time.

iOS

1. Open the notification sent to your iOS device at your Story's scheduled time
   • Missed your notification? No problem—you can still access it in the Later app
2. Tap Open in Instagram
   
   Important: Please be sure you are logged in to the correct Instagram account
3. Once in Instagram, tap the photo in the bottom left to open your Camera Roll
4. If your Story contains one media item:
   • Tap your media item
   If your Story contains multiple media items:
   • Tap the Select Multiple icon in the top right corner
   • Select all your media items
   • Tap the arrow (→) in the bottom left
5. Optional: Edit your Story using Instagram’s tools
   
   Tip: If you added clipboard text when scheduling your Story in Later, you can paste it now! It will have been automatically copied to your clipboard.
6. When you’re ready to share, tap the arrow (→) in the bottom left
7. Configure your sharing options
8. Tap Share!

Important: If your Story includes a video longer than 15 seconds, you must publish the video separately due to iOS limitations. To do this, select all media items before the video and then publish those media items to your Story. Then, repeat the publishing steps for the video only.