Instagram Stories are probably the most popular part of the app and certainly the part that most of my friends use. They were introduced to stop the rise of Snapchat and they work surprisingly well. They have almost identical intent, but work very well within the image-based social network. But what happens if you post something and then change your mind? Can you delete an Instagram story?
If you can. You can delete anything you post.
Even though an Instagram Story is only active for a limited time, it’s still enough time for people to see it, spot a mistake, be horrified or surprised, or whatever you don’t want them to become. If you need to delete an Instagram story, you better act fast. Some users will detect and access something new in less than a minute!
Instagram Stories are discoverable. This means that people who don’t follow you can see them in the app through search or from their feed. You better act fast if you don’t want them to see it.
Delete your Instagram story
Deleting an Instagram story, like most things on the app, is actually very simple. With a couple of taps, your story will be permanently deleted. That’s something to remember when doing this. There is no draft mode and you cannot unpublish something. You can only delete it, so once done, it will disappear. However, you still have a copy in your Story Archive if you need it. If you’re okay with that, here’s how to do it.
- Open your story in the app.
- Select the three dot menu icon at the bottom right of the screen.
- Select Delete and then confirm with Delete again.
Your Instagram Story will now be removed from the live stream. If someone had it open at the time, that copy will not be deleted. When they close that Story or move on, it will no longer be visible in the app.
Delete an Instagram story from your archive
If you’re cleaning house or deleting evidence, you can also delete an Instagram story from your archive. Each story you publish is saved as a copy in your stories archive. If you are performing cleanup or deleting evidence, in addition to deleting your live story, you should also delete it from your story archive.
That is how:
- Open your Instagram profile in the bottom right corner of the app.
- Tap the triple line menu icon in the top right corner of your profile and select the timer icon.
- Select the story you want to delete.
- Select the three dot menu icon at the bottom right.
- Select Delete and Delete again to confirm.
While deleting a Live Story left you with a copy here, deleting it from your Story Archive means it’s gone forever. All copies of the Story will be completely removed from Instagram.
Delete an Instagram story from Highlights
Instagram Highlights are your way to keep a Story for more than 24 hours. It is a permanent list of Stories that you can access from your profile. It’s also another place you should delete a Story if you’re cleaning house. In addition to live and your stories archive, if you saved it as a Featured, you may need to delete it from there as well.
That is how:
- Navigate to your profile and select Featured Stories.
- Select the Story you want to delete and long press on it.
- Select Remove Highlight.
You can also select Highlight and use the three dot menu icon to access the delete command as above.
Delete a post or video from Instagram
Since we’re in the mood to clean up, I can also show you how to delete a post or video in case you don’t know. It uses the same methodology as Stories and is just as easy.
- Select the post or video you want to delete.
- Select the three dot menu icon.
- Select Delete and Delete again to confirm the deletion.
If that seems a little drastic, a post has an option that Stories doesn’t, an option to unpublish. You can archive an Instagram post which will remove it from the live post so no one can see it, but keep it in your app so you can access it when needed. It is a feature that we could use for Stories, since it is a private file and not publicly accessible. Any archived posts are only for you and cannot be accessed by any other user, friends or anyone else.
Here’s how to archive a post:
- Select the post you want to archive.
- Select the three dot menu icon at the top right.
- Select Archive.
To view your archived posts, go to your Instagram profile and select the clock icon at the top right. This will take you directly to your archive where you can view any stories or images you have added.
