Instagram Stories are only visible for a short time. Unlike other social media platforms that make it easy to share or retweet someone else's original content, Instagram is a little trickier.
But, if you appreciate someone's Instagram story enough, you might want to show it to other friends and followers. In this article, we'll cover how and when you can share another user's content on the platform.
How to share an Instagram story
There are different ways to share another person's Instagram story. But, there are also rules for doing so. Let's start!
Share a story with your story
As usual, it's simple to share someone else's story on Instagram.
The ability to add someone's Story to yours is highly dependent on whether or not the creator tagged you in their Story. If the user who originally posted the story didn't tag you in it, there is no option to add the story to your story.
We've got more options below, but for now, let's talk about how to share someone else's Instagram story assuming you've been tagged there.
- Open Instagram and tap the message icon in the upper right corner.
- Open the tagging notification you received when you were tagged in the Story.
- Tap "Add to Story" and tap "Send" to post it to your own story.
Select all the changes you want, then publish as normal. The story will appear in your profile for 24 hours before disappearing like the others.
How to send a story to someone else
If you haven't been tagged, you can still send your Story to another user. While this won't publish the story for everyone to see, this method is useful if you want to show it to a few friends.
The caveat to this is that the original author's account should be set to "Public". If not, you won't see the option to send it to someone else.
To send an existing Story to another user on Instagram, follow these steps:
- Tap the story at the top of your screen.
- Tap the paper plane icon to the right of the text box.
- Tap "Send" next to the users you want to share the story with.
That's all we can say about it. If the paper plane icon doesn't appear next to the text box, the other user probably has their account set to private or they haven't set permissions to allow sharing.
Share Instagram Stories – External
Another cool feature of Instagram is the ability to share a Story link using an external app. For example, if you want to show your friend a cute or funny Instagram story, you can copy the link and text it to them.
Here's how:
- Tap on the Instagram story and tap on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner.
- Tap “Share to…”
- Select the app and/or contact you want to send the link to.
When your friend clicks on the link; Instagram will open taking them straight to the story.
Set your stories as public
The story being public is one of two requirements for sharing content. This is also the default setting unless you manually change it to Private. You should ideally keep as much of your account public as possible and only make it private if you're having trouble with someone. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of being on social media. It's your account, so you should do what works for you.
A public account is available to everyone and will show up in search and in suggestion lists. A private account is only visible to friends you follow. You need to follow them so they can see a private account. It is not enough that they follow you.
To set your account to public or private, follow these steps:
- Open the menu on Instagram.
- Select Settings then Privacy.
- Select Account Privacy.
- Select Private account or Public account depending on your needs.
By default, your account will be set to Public, so you really only need to do this if you're switching to or from a private setting.
How to tag someone on Instagram
The second key element in sharing each other's stories is marked within it. Only when you are tagged can you currently repost a Story. So how can you tag in Instagram Stories?
- Create your story as usual with an image, captions, titles, stickers or whatever.
- Select a space in the image and write an @mention using their username.
You can tag multiple people in a Story and each will receive a notification that they've been tagged. You can't prevent this notification, but you can prevent your Story from being reposted.
Prevent your Instagram Stories from being reposted
Although it is a little unfair to repost other people's stories but block them from doing it to you, it is possible. This is a privacy setting that you can configure that will prevent anyone from sharing your content.
- Select the menu icon in the Instagram app.
- Select Settings then Privacy.
- Select Story controls and turn off Allow sharing.
This is a universal setting that will prevent people from sharing any of your stories until you change it. To reverse your decision, simply repeat the above and toggle the switch to enable repost.
Republish content
Remailing is a key aspect of social media, but should be done sparingly. Think of it as a dating game or app and imagine you only have one or two swipes a day or week. Keep them in reserve until you find something exceptional or particularly interesting and repost only that. Repost too often and you will soon find yourself unfollowed or ignored and no one wants that on a social network!
