Instagram is the rage among all generations nowadays. Its amazing features, usability, Instagram stories, and photo-sharing options make it truly unique. Anyone can view stories of other people and themselves on top of their feed. These Instagram stories last for 24 hours and can be viewed countless times.

A ring of multiple colors appears around one’s profile picture, showing that they have posted Instagram stories. When you click on the round icon around a friend’s name, a slideshow will play that contains all the stories of that person. To view someone’s story, you must follow them, or their account should be public. However, a story expires after 24 hours of it being uploaded.

Now, let’s suppose you missed a particular story somehow while all your friends saw it, which makes you feel left out. After all, this is the generation that experiences F.O.M.O (fear of missing out) the most. According to many developers, the whole point of this 24-hour deletion thing is to make you check your phone now and then. Social media platforms use this tactic to increase engagement and earn more traffic.

So, it will make you wonder how to watch expired Instagram stories? Well, my friend, we have got answers to all your queries.

How to See Previous Instagram Stories?

Well, I will rip off the Band-Aid. No, you cannot view past Instagram stories after they have expired. You see, the lifespan of these Instagram stories, no matter it is yours or someone else’s, is just 24 hours. After that, they become memories on Instagram. Snapchat inspired this automatic story deletion feature of Instagram.

However, not all hope is lost, chum. There is an exception to this case. As the popularity of Instagram stories’ features grew, so did the intensity of the question “how to see old Instagram stories“? Several Instagram influencers share valuable information or cool tricks and tricks on stories. It made the platform users frustrated because these stories only had a time limit of 24 hours. No matter how much we use our phones, we still can’t always be glued to them.

In 2017, Instagram finally responded to their users and added the features of Highlights and Archives. Unlike Snapchat, it is possible to save stories on Instagram even after 24 hours.

Pro Tip: If you don’t get enough views on your Instagram stories, you can buy Instagram story views from InstaBoost to get more eye-balls on your stories and reach a wider audience.

Highlights:

Now, your curious mind would be wondering how to view old Instagram stories through Highlights? A highlight is a cool feature on Instagram that can turn a story to last forever on the feed. Stories added in the Highlights of an Instagram account can be viewed again and again without any time constraint. These stories never expire until and unless the account owner chooses to take them down.

How to See Expired Instagram Stories with Highlights?

Story elements can be grouped in Highlights, which any user can post on their Instagram feed. Even though they are called Highlights, but they look exactly like a normal Instagram post.

Archives:

You might be wondering, is there another way to save your stories and videos on Instagram. Let me tell your something amazing. Even though normal Instagram stories disappear after a day, but they still stay archived on Instagram. Cool right?

Not many people know what are archives on Instagram and how they can be accessed. It is a feature through which you can save your Instagram stories. Let’s suppose your story vanishes before you can even save it. Don’t you worry because you can still revive them? However, only you can use this feature for yourself; the stories won’t be visible to other people after 24 hours.

How to See Old Stories with Archives?

Now Instagram saves your stories under Archives by default. To view those archived stories, go to the screen of your profile, press the hamburger buttons present on the top-right side of the menu. Select “Archive,” and you can view your archived stories. These archived stories can be highlighted and re-shared as well.

In case the Archive feature is not automatically turned on, you can turn it on manually. Go to the Settings within your profile and tap on the “Privacy” icon. After opening it, select the “Stories” option, and within, you can manually turn on the option of saving your stories to Archives.

Take a Screenshot

Other than Highlights and Archives, there are other options through which an Instagram story can be copied. If the concerned story is your own, then tap on the icon of “Seen By,” located at the left end of your main screen of the story. You can choose the Download option, and the story will be saved to the phone’s camera roll.

How to Capture Old Instagram Stories with Screenshots?

If the story in question is someone else’s, you can still be clever and get a screenshot. However, in some states, the other person is notified when you took a screenshot of their stories. Another creative way is to use such websites through which stories of other people can be saved. One striking site of such kind is Stories. It helps you inconveniently saving amazing content of other influencers or even friends.

Whatever website you choose for that purpose, always read its reviews first. For the website to work, you have to permit it to access your information and Instagram account. So make sure that the chosen website is trustable.

Ask Your Friend

If you have accidentally missed your friend’s story, the easiest and most obvious way is to ask your friend. You can request them to access their archives and re-share their previous stories with you. If the story is of some distant acquaintance, then maybe avoid asking for their previous stories. You sure don’t want to look desperate.