Instagram creators live and die by the quality of Instagram posts and stories. Simply hitting record in your camera app and hoping the end result is good enough to not edit usually won’t generate views.
If you are looking to update your Instagram stories, this article will provide you with 12 of the best Instagram stories apps that can help you.
canva

While it may not have been created for editing videos and Instagram stories, few lists of photo editing apps can do without mentioning them. canva. Its huge collection of templates and a wide selection of stock photos help you create new designs without much editing knowledge.
You can add text, images, emojis, filters or titles without much fuss and export your content in formats that work for most social media apps. If you want to go a step further, you also have advanced layout tools like photo blur, layout grids, and photo vignettes.
Canva is a freemium app that’s a little unwieldy for finding free items, but it’s available for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac, or you can work directly in a browser. Some apps also integrated Canva for easy access to its vast collection.
Advantages
- Important collection of badges, stickers and frames.
- Over 1 million background images
- More than 60,000 templates
Cons
- Expensive subscription plan
- No filter to show only free features
Adobe Express

With Adobe Express, you can combine images or add video clips to create your Instagram story. You can add various stock effects to your images, but it works great with animations, fonts, and sounds. You can also add sounds to your video stories from your phone so you can download the audio you want to use and upload it to Adobe Express.
Adobe Express is a freemium app that can be downloaded on Android, iOS, or your PC.
Advantages
- Create animated posts
- Easy to use
- Cloud backup for synchronization
Cons
- Lacks templates
- Not enough graphics
VSCO

This app is great for editing and adding features to your Instagram stories. You’ll get professional-looking presets and plenty of tools to adjust lighting, texture, and color. The app’s standout feature is photo editing, so look into VSCO if you take a lot of photos that you want to enhance for stories.
VSCO It is available on Android and iOS. You can download the app for free and have the option to use the free version or pay to use the premium version.
Advantages
- Professional looking stories
- 10 Free Presets
- Video editor with color control
Cons
- No desktop version
- Not enough free features
HistoryArt

HistoryArt offers a variety of preset templates and many different options for adding effects to images. You can add preset themes, filters, text with various fonts, and other design effects.
The app receives frequent updates with new filters and effects. However, it doesn’t provide much photo editing compared to a standard editing app. It won’t let you play with an additional effect or filter.
This highly rated editing app can be downloaded on Android, iOS, and newer Macs. Users get some free editing effects every month.
Advantages
- Easy to use effects
- Add new designs every month.
- More than 20 themes
Cons
- Does not allow customization of effects.
typorama

This app allows you to add text over your Instagram story images. Wear typorama, simply choose an image as your background and write your message. You will get a large number of typographic designs with typeface, font and placement options. You also get overlays, filters, and image correction.
This freemium app is available only on iOS, but it is one of the best in its class if you want to add text to an image that will look stunning.
Advantages
- Advanced text styling tools
- quick and easy
- Economical premium subscription
Cons
- Only available on iOS
pattern

pattern Add animated backgrounds by creating patterns from repeating images or stickers. There are several stock images and GIFs to use, or you can add stickers made from photos you upload. You can adjust the pattern to ensure you get the best viewing experience.
Patternator is available as a freemium app on iOS and Android.
Advantages
- funny animated backgrounds
- Share to Instagram directly
- Customizable stickers
Cons
- one trick pony
in shot

InShot is a photo and video editor created specifically for Instagram. You can use in shot to cut, split, trim, crop and merge videos. You can insert sounds and music into stories and comes with speed control so you can make videos in slow or faster motion.
You also have numerous effects, filters and video backgrounds to choose from. InShot also comes with a good number of stickers, emojis, text and other design effects in the collection for seamless photo editing.
InShot is a freemium app (that also has a one-time purchase option) that is available on iOS and Android.
Advantages
- Made specifically for Instagram
- Excellent in video and photo editing.
- Can convert videos
Cons
- The most interesting features are in the paid plan.
Deploy

Deploy It offers minimalist and elegant templates. It specializes in creating magazine or album-like stories from your images or videos. It has a decent number of templates and filters that you can play with.
You do not need to create an account to start the editing process and use the free designs. However, it also has a premium version that substantially improves the template offering.
Advantages
- No account set up
- 25 free templates plus 60+ premium templates
- Elegant album design
Cons
- Only 10 filters for the free version
- Highly specialized
life span

life span is a great app for stop-motion videos. It is intuitive to use and image previews are overlaid so you can see the desired result. The app also has over 50 lessons and tutorials to help you create top-notch content even if you’re a beginner. You can also participate in their Stop Motion challenges and win prizes. With premium, you can add music and audio overlay.
It is available on Android and iOS.
Advantages
- Specializes in stop-motion
- Comes with extensive tutorials.
- Intuitive to use
Cons
- Need payment for music editing.
Image Mosaic

Image Mosaic allows you to make image and video collages with its numerous templates. It has a large collection of fonts, stickers, filters and photo effects. There are also photo editing features including removing the background from a photo and cropping an object from a photo.
Photo Grid also has beautification features and a selfie camera that will automatically beautify your selfies. You can also create memes and add GIFs.
The free version is available online through a browser and places a watermark on the content. The paid app is available on iOS, PC or as APK on Android for more effects.
Advantages
- Easy to use
- Real-time selfie camera editing
- Beautification features for portraits.
Cons
- Free features missing
luxury story

luxury story is a great app for photo collages. You’ll get 700 templates that look like photographs taped together with film strips. The app offers themed templates and patterned backgrounds, as well as text editing for further customization.
Storyluxe is only available on iOS and has free and premium options.
Advantages
- Introduce new designs periodically.
- Custom branding watermark for premium users
- Theme Template Categories
Cons
- Limited font options
exaggerated type

This app is great if you want to use animated text. With exaggerated type You can speed up or slow down the text, as well as invert or flip it. You can then add your text to the video, even as a running comment. Hype-Type also works with static images and can generate quotes ranging from meaningful to interesting (but it might be best to just stick with whatever comes to mind).
You can download this app on iOS while the Android app lacks features and updates. The free version contains ads that may interrupt your stream, but you can pay to remove them.
Advantages
- fun and easy
- Variety of animations and fonts.
- Ability to combine multiple video clips.
Cons
- Contains ads
Improve your Instagram stories
Instagram Stories are a fun way to share little snippets of your everyday life with friends and followers. The right Instagram stories app will allow you to take your creations to the next level while also allowing you to instill that personal touch that makes your stories unique.