Instagram stories are image or video posts that are displayed in a slideshow format, separate from your main content feed in Instagram. In this article, learn what options are available for creating and publishing Instagram stories with Publish and our Hub mobile app.

Creating and publishing a single-media Instagram story with Publish

In Publish, it is possible to create and publish an Instagram story with a single image or video to multiple Instagram channels. Post scheduling, approval, notes, and labels are supported for single-media stories as well as multi-media stories you would like to publish to one channel.

If you would like to publish an Instagram story with multiple media attachments, or add native story Instagram features such as filters, stickers, music tracks, etc. please see our section below on preparing an Instagram story for Hub app publishing.

1. In Publish, click Create Post in the top left.
   
2. Choose Instagram for the network and select the channel(s) you want to publish your story to. Click the Create Instagram Post button.

   Note:

   Currently, it is only possible to create a post on one network at a time. However, you can select multiple channels on the network to publish your post to.

   
3. Switch to the Story tab at the top left of the Publish editor.

   Note:

   Since adding stickers is not supported by Instagram’s API, the Story URL field will not be available for direct single-media story publishing in Publish. If you want to add a link to your story, see the section below on using the Hub app to publish your story.

4. Add a single image or video asset in one of the following ways:
   • Drag and drop your video file to the file area.

     Note:

     Story videos have a maximum file size limit of 100MB. For full story file specifications, please refer to our Media Attachments Guide.

   • Click the file area to open your local file browser, and choose a file to upload.
   • Hover over the file area and click the Cloud link to open a file picker popup. You can access various cloud storages such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
   • Hover over the file area and click the Content Pool link to select files stored in the Content Pool.
5. When you are ready to publish your post, click Publish, Schedule, or Send for Approval (depending on the option you selected).

Preparing a multi-media story for Hub app publishing

Due to API limitations, publishing an Instagram story with native story Instagram features such as filters, stickers, music tracks, etc. is not supported in Publish, but you can use Publish to prepare such stories and complete the publishing process natively with the Hub app. You can also use the Hub app to draft a story post with multiple media attachments.

1. In Publish, click Create Post in the top left.
2. Choose Instagram for the network and select the channel you want to publish your story to. Click the Create Instagram Post button.
3. Switch to the Story tab at the top left of the Publish editor.
4. Add your image or video assets in one of the following ways:
   • Drag and drop your file to the file area.

     Note:

     Story videos have a maximum file size limit of 100MB. For full story file specifications, please refer to our Media Attachments Guide.

   • Click the file area to open your local file browser, and choose a file to upload.
   • Hover over the file area and click the Cloud link to open a file picker popup. You can access various cloud storages such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
   • Hover over the file area and click the Content Pool link to select files stored in the Content Pool.
5. Under the Hub app panel, click the link to switch to Hub app publishing, then use the Select Publisher dropdown to select your publisher. A publisher is a user who has installed and logged into the Hub app on their mobile device. The publisher you select will receive the notification on their phone from the Hub app when the story needs to be published. Use the drop-down menu to select the publisher who should receive the notification (e.g. this can be yourself).

   Note:

   A user must have downloaded the Hub app on their phone and logged in with their Social Media Management credentials in order to show up in the Publisher dropdown. If you do not see the correct publisher, see the section on Using the Hub App below for full instructions.

   Note:

   When you publish your story through the Hub app, you will have the option to add native Instagram filters and stickers such as text, emoji, a URL, location, hashtag, etc.

   For URLs, you will see a space to enter a Link sticker URL in the Publish editor after you switch to Hub app publishing. If you add a URL here, it will be copied to your phone’s clipboard when you download the media from the Hub app so you can add the URL to your story using a link sticker in the final steps of publishing your story natively in the Instagram app.

6. Select any other desired Publish options for your story, such as adding labels, scheduling, or submitting for approval.
7. When you are ready, click Send to Hub App for the story to be published right away, Schedule to Hub App if you want your story scheduled, or Send for Approval if your team will first approve the story before publishing.

Using the Hub app to publish stories with native Instagram features

Downloading the Hub app

The Hub mobile app is available to download from the App Store and Google Play. 

Prior to using the Hub app, make sure you or any publisher team members have installed the Hub app on a mobile device, logged in with your Social Media Management credentials, and enabled push notifications for the app. Users will need a Social Media Management user role of Editor or above as well as direct access to the specific Instagram channel(s) in order to publish to those channels with the Hub app.

Publishing a story with the Hub app

1. After you have scheduled or sent a post to the Hub app, the selected publisher will receive a push notification on their phone at the post's scheduled time.
   
2. After tapping the notification, the Hub app will open and display a preview of the post. Scroll to the bottom of the preview and tap Publish.
   
3. The media files(s) you uploaded in Publish for your story will be saved to your phone. You will see some instructional screens to swipe through. Make sure you are logged into the Instagram account you would like to publish to, and then tap I’m Ready to Publish on the final screen to be redirected to Instagram.
   
4. In the native Instagram story view, select the media from your phone. The media will appear as the most recent item(s) saved to your camera roll.
5. Apply any further image editing or features to your story, such as Instagram’s filters or stickers, and then publish your story to Instagram.
   

   Note:

   If your story contains multiple media files, they will all be saved to the camera roll of the phone and will need to be published one at a time, as Instagram only allows one media file per story.

6. After your story has been published, follow the steps below to return to Publish to confirm that your story has been published and merge the Publish draft with the published story. This will allow Publish to report on the story’s performance.

Confirming a story was published

Due to Instagram’s API limitations, it’s not possible for Publish to detect that your new Instagram story is the same story which was created and scheduled via Publish and published via the Hub app. That means that if you have used the Hub app to publish your story, you will see a duplicate of your story in the Publish calendar. Merging it allows us to link your published Instagram story with the notes, labels, author, and approver data from when the post was created and scheduled in Publish. It will also remove the duplicate story post from your Publish calendar. Having labels and other in-platform data on the published story post will help to more accurately report on the story’s performance.

To confirm that a story was published, locate your story post in Publish under the Processing section. Open it and click Yes, It’s Posted to confirm.

When presented with previews of your recent stories, select the correct story and click Merge & Finish at the bottom of the panel. If the post had more than one media file in it, you will need to select all the stories that were created from that draft.

FAQs

What is the Hub app and how does it work?

The Hub app is a multipurpose mobile app offered by Social Media Management. In addition to allowing you to publish your Instagram content natively in Instagram to use all the native features, the app lets you view the scheduled and published content from your Publish calendar, interact with your team via notes, approve and reschedule your content on the go, and much more. Check out a full list of Hub’s features in our Hub Mobile App article.

Once you are ready to publish an Instagram post that you created in Publish, or your scheduled post is ready to go live, we will send the content to your chosen publisher via a Hub app push notification on their phone. This push notification allows us to save your post content created in Publish directly to your phone and redirect you straight to the Instagram app to upload and customize your post. When you publish your post through the Hub app, you’ll have the option to add native Instagram filters and stickers such as text, emoji, a URL, location, hashtags, etc.

The Hub mobile app is available to download from the App Store and Google Play.

Why doesn’t my name (or another user’s name) appear in the list of publishers for Hub?

Only Social Media Management users with a user role of Editor and above will appear as a publisher. Provided a user has the correct user role, there are three quick steps they will need to take in order to appear as a publisher:

1. Download the Hub App (available to download from the App Store and Google Play).
2. Log into the Hub App using their existing Social Media Management login credentials.
3. In the Hub app > Settings, enable in-app notifications.

If the user’s name still does not appear after following the above steps, please consider contacting our Support team.

Why did I get the error, "We could not save the media to your phone at this time," in the Hub app?

Either your device may not have the necessary storage to hold the media files, or the media is in a format which is not supported by your device. If you have enough storage space and the media is in line with Instagram’s media requirements, please contact Support for help troubleshooting the issue.

Can I use the Hub app to publish general image posts, reels and Instagram single-media stories?

It’s not necessary to use the Hub app to publish Instagram image posts, reels, or single stories, though the option is available. This option may be helpful if you would like to publish instagram stories with native story features such as filters, stickers, links, or music tracks. When you are creating an Instagram image post, reel, or single story in Publish, you will see an option to click switch to Hub App publishing on the Hub app panel in the Publish editor.