If you're using Stories as part of your Instagram marketing mix, you've probably wondered: Tin can you schedule Instagram Stories?

Well, nifty news — the respond is yes! Y'all can now create, edit, and schedule your Stories in advance using the Instagram Story scheduler in Hootsuite or Facebook Business Suite.

In this postal service, we cover the benefits to scheduling Instagram Stories rather than publishing them on the fly, like:

  • saving a ton of time
  • making it easier to customize Stories with editing tools and templates
  • avoiding typos and autocorrect mistakes

We likewise walk you through the exact process of how to schedule Instagram Stories.

Non a big reader? Watch this video for an easy, visual demonstration of how to schedule Instagram Stories:

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Is there an app for scheduling Instagram Stories?

You tin't schedule Stories straight within Instagram. But you can use the Hootsuite mobile app or desktop dashboard to schedule Instagram Stories. As of May 2021, it is likewise possible to schedule and post Instagram Stories via Facebook Business concern Suite.

How to schedule Instagram Stories using Hootsuite

Because of an Instagram API limitation, third-party apps and software can't publish directly to Instagram Stories. This means once you create and schedule your Story, there are merely a couple actress steps to take directly inside the Instagram app. But don't worry — the whole process is very quick and easy.

Here's exactly how it works.

Before you lot start, make certain you're using the latest versions of both the Hootsuite* and Instagram apps.

You can create and schedule Instagram Stories on your desktop, simply yous'll need both mobile apps to consummate the publishing process.

*Instagram Stories scheduling is bachelor to Professional users and to a higher place

Step one: Create your Instagram Story

i. From the Hootsuite dashboard, click the drop-down arrow side by side to the greenish New Post push button and select New Story.

2. In the Post to field, choose which Instagram profile(s) you want to share the Story to.

three. Drag and drop up to ten images and videos for your Story into the Media area, or click Select files to upload. Or, click Open Media Library to create a Story using free stock images or image assets from your Enterprise content library. Go along in heed that each image file tin be a maximum of 5MB, and videos can exist a maximum of 60 seconds long. You can always change the lodge in which your photos and videos appear in your story. Simply drag-and-drop them into the right in the list on the left of your dashboard.

4. Click Edit Prototype under each file to prepare your Story assets using the Hootsuite image editor.

five. In the Transform bill of fare, click Story under Instagram to crop your photo to the correct size.

half dozen. Apply whatever other edits to customize your image using filters and the Adjust and Focus tools.

7. Get artistic with frames, stickers, and the brush tool, and add your overlay text. Keep in mind that stickers and text yous use with the image editing tool are not clickable in Stories. Y'all'll add together hashtags, links, and other interactive elements in a afterward step. When y'all're happy with your paradigm, click Save .

Editing tools in Hootsuite's Instagram Story scheduler

Step two: Preview your Story and add interactive elements

1. Use the preview pane on the right to bank check your Story components and make sure everything looks bang-up.

2. If you want to add links, hashtags, or other interactive text components to your Story, type them into the Clipboard text box. This will save the text then y'all can easily re-create and paste information technology when you're finalizing your Story in the Instagram app.

3. If you have not already gear up the mobile notification workflow, click the bell icon and complete the steps equally prompted. You lot'll merely have to do this the first time you schedule a Story. Call back that you lot cannot use the direct publishing choice with Instagram Stories considering Instagram does not let it.

Step 3: Schedule your Story

1. Click Schedule for later

2. Select your date and fourth dimension and click Done.

3. Click the green Schedule push button to schedule your Story.

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Pace iv: Finalize and publish your Story

The Hootsuite app will send you a push notification on your phone when it'southward time for your Story to go alive. From here, y'all can publish your Story in just a few clicks.

1. Tap the notification to open a preview of your Story, and so click Open in Instagram. This will open the Instagram app. Important: The Story will mail to whichever account is signed in. If you have more than ane Instagram profile, make sure you are signed into the right 1.

two. In the Instagram app, tap the camera icon in the top-left corner, then tap the gallery icon in the bottom correct. The images and videos y'all prepared for your Story will appear as the virtually contempo items in your photographic camera ringlet.

3. If your Story includes multiple photos and videos, tap Select Multiple, then select all the components of your Story and tap Next. If your Story includes just one photo or video, only tap that item.

iv. You tin now add any interactive text components to your Story. All the text you entered in Hootsuite has been copied to your clipboard, so y'all tin simply paste it into the correct location. For example, to add your hashtag text, either add a hashtag sticker or open a text box, and then tap-and-agree and select Paste to paste in your text.

5. If y'all want to brand farther edits to your images, y'all tin use Instagram'southward stickers, drawing tools, and filters. When you're finished, tap Send To. This is a good gamble to double-check that you're signed into the correct Instagram account by looking at the profile picture.

6. Tap Share side by side to Your Story to publish your Story.

Spotter the video beneath to see the whole Instagram Stories scheduling process in activity.

How to schedule Instagram Stories using Facebook Business Suite

If you have a Business account on Instagram, you can use Facebook'southward native Business organization Suite to craft and schedule Instagram Stories.

Facebook Business organisation Suite is a handy tool if you're only posting to Facebook and Instagram — simply nigh social media marketing pros can save a lot of time and free energy using a social media direction tool and handling all social channels from a unmarried dashboard.

A tool like Hootsuite will help you schedule content to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest from one place. Here is how Business Suite compares to Hootsuite:

table chart comparing Facebook Business Suite and Hootsuite

If you choose to schedule your Instagram Stories using Facebook'southward native solution, sign in to your account and follow the steps beneath.

Step 1: Navigate to Business Suite

Become to your Page and pick Concern Suite from the bill of fare on the left side of the screen.

Facebook Page navigation menu

Once yous're in, select your account from the driblet-down carte in the meridian left corner of the dashboard.

Pace 2: First drafting your Story

You can practice this from iii spots in the dashboard:

  • the Posts and Stories item in the menu on the left side of the screen
  • the Create Post button in the carte du jour on the left side of the screen
  • the Create Story button in the eye of the dashboard

Creating an Instagram Story in Facebook Business Suite

Once you click on one of these options, a Story creator window volition pop upwards. Here, select the business relationship you want to share your Story to, and upload an prototype or video to commencement working on your Story.

The Story editing options in Business Suite are quite limited compared to what you can do in the Instagram app or Hootsuite. You tin only crop your media file, and add text and stickers.

Creating an Instagram Story in Facebook Business Suite

Step 3: Schedule your Instagram Story

Once you're happy with your creation, click the arrow beside the Publish Story button for scheduling options.

Scheduling Instagram Stories in Facebook Business Suite

Click Schedule Story. Then, pick a date and time to post your Story.

Picking a date and time to schedule Instagram Story

Once you salve the appointment and time, click Schedule Story, and y'all're washed!

Scheduling Instagram Story in Facebook Business Suite

You can confirm that your Story has been scheduled by navigating to Posts and Stories, thenStories, soScheduled.

Viewing and managing scheduled Instagram Story in Facebook Business Suite

This is as well where you can manage your postal service — reschedule information technology, publish information technology immediately or delete it from your pipeline.

Benefits of scheduling Instagram Stories

Save fourth dimension

Learning how to schedule Instagram Stories saves you a ton of fourth dimension and makes sharing Stories much less disruptive to your workday. Instead of having to create and post Stories on the wing multiple times per day, yous can sit downwards and prepare your Stories for the week all in one go.

When it'southward time for your scheduled Stories to go live, you can push them out with just a couple of clicks.

Of course, yous can also share alive Stories in betwixt your scheduled ones if you want to update your audition on something happening in the moment.

Upload Instagram Stories from your desktop or laptop

How many times take you had to send a photo or file to your phone just to post it on Stories? And then dig around in your camera roll trying to discover the correct posts in the right guild?

When you use an Instagram Story scheduler, you can eliminate this pace. You tin can upload your Stories files direct from your desktop or laptop. When it's fourth dimension for your Story to go alive, the components automatically appear in the right order at the top of your camera gyre, ready to go.

More editing options

When you use Hootsuite to schedule Instagram Stories, you gain access to all the editing tools congenital into the Hootsuite dashboard. That ways you tin can create Stories with fonts, stickers, and frames that are non available within the Instagram app. You tin fifty-fifty upload your own stickers to give your Story a unique look and feel.

And, as we mentioned in the last point, you can do this editing on your desktop or laptop. You lot can apply a full-size keyboard and monitor to fine-tune your edits, giving your greater creative command.

Cultivate a consistent look and feel with templates

Using Instagram templates is a great way to create consistent Story posts that align with your brand'due south overall wait and feel. Templates are especially useful when you're sharing non-visual content like text, quotes, or links to your blog posts.

Screenshot of the Instagram Stories template that Hootsuite uses Alternate version of the Instagram Stories template that Hootsuite uses

The claiming is that many Instagram templates require you to use a figurer-based software program like Adobe Photoshop to create your posts. And getting your finished posts from Photoshop to your telephone for posting is a dull process.

The ability to upload your posts directly from your estimator makes it much easier to work with templates. That means you're more likely to incorporate these valuable tools into your Instagram Stories posts.

New to templates? We've created a whole post on how to employ them that includes a set of free Instagram Stories templates to get you started.

Avoid typos and broken links

Typing with your thumbs is not the best manner to create pristine content. Never heed when autocorrect gets involved.

Scheduling your posts in advance gives yous the chance to plan your text and links more carefully. Type your captions on a proper keyboard. Run them through a spelling and grammer check program. Test your links. Encounter what other posts are beingness shared for the hashtags you plan to utilize.

Information technology's always a skilful idea to give yourself time to walk away from your content for a minute and and so read it again with a fresher set of eyes. (Or even get a colleague to have a peek.) That's tough when you're posting on the wing. When you've scheduled Stories, you lot can review them in the Hootsuite planner at whatsoever time earlier they go live.

Encourage engagement

One time you've mastered how to schedule Instagram Stories, you'll likely detect you lot're posting more Stories, and more consistently. When your audition knows what kind of content to expect from you, and when to expect information technology, they're more than likely to watch your Stories and engage.

Set to start scheduling Instagram Stories and save fourth dimension? Use Hootsuite to manage all your social networks (and schedule posts) from a single dashboard.

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