How to repost a story on Instagram? (+Creative tips and best practices)

Got 14 minutes? We’ll show you every way to repost a Story on Instagram, including the one Instagram added after most guides on the subject were written.

You can repost a story on Instagram without being tagged in it. Open the story, tap Share, then tap Add to story. The only thing that still stops you is the other person’s privacy setting, because Instagram lets you reshare a story only if the account that posted it is public, and that holds whether your own account is public or private.

That is a bigger change than it sounds. For years the answer to this question was that you couldn’t unless somebody tagged you, and plenty of guides still say exactly that. We’ve rewritten this one around what the app actually does now, including the bit nobody explains, which is why the Add to story option sometimes isn’t there at all.

The reasons to bother haven’t changed. Reposting is still the cheapest way to keep your Instagram Stories running without making something new every day (somebody else did the work, the credit link goes on automatically, and your audience meets an account they didn’t know). Need we say more? Only the mechanics moved.

Key takeaways

• Any public account’s story can be reshared to yours. Tap Share, then Add to story. No tag needed.
• A private account’s story cannot be reshared this way, and your own account being public or private makes no difference to that.
• The person who posted decides. The switch is Settings > Sharing and reuse > Stories to stories, and it offers Everyone, Followers you follow back, or Off.
• Teen accounts have story-to-story sharing off by default, so a missing button is very often just that.
• Instagram’s Repost button, announced in August 2025, works on public feed posts and reels. It does not work on stories.

Understanding how to repost a Story on Instagram

Instagram has never shipped a feature called Regram. What it has, as of 2025, is two different things that people both call reposting, and mixing them up is where most of the confusion on this topic starts.

The first is resharing a story to your story. Instagram’s own guidance is blunt about the rule. You can reshare someone’s story only if their account is public, and you can do it whether your own account is public or private. Being tagged stopped being part of it.

The person who posted the story is the one who decides. That control lives under Settings > Sharing and reuse > Stories to stories, and it has three settings, Everyone, Followers you follow back, and Off. Public accounts start on Everyone. Teen accounts start on Off, which is worth knowing before you decide the app is broken.

The second route is the mention, and it behaves differently. Tag someone in your story and they get a notification in their direct messages with an Add to your story button attached to it. That route survives a private account, because allowing a reshare of a story you mentioned someone in means their followers can see that story even though your account is private. A lot of people set this up without realising that is the trade.

Either way the clock is the same. A story lasts 24 hours, and so does your window to pass it on, which makes reposting a same-day job rather than something you get round to next week. Instagram attaches a link back to the original automatically, so don’t cover it with a sticker. The credit is the entire social contract holding this up.

Benefits of reposting Stories

Reposting another creator’s Story can be beneficial to both parties, especially if it’s user-generated content (UGC).

Here’s a closer look at the benefits:

• Strengthens collaborations and partnerships with collaborators, influencers, and other brands by offering mutual promotion and exposure.
• Reposting UGC showcases your products and builds trust in your brand.
• Builds community by offering chances to engage with your audience.
• Creates opportunities to share diverse content styles that appeal to a wider audience.
• Boosts brand visibility by encouraging users to interact with your account.
• Allows your brand to remain active on Stories without having to constantly create new content.

In the next section, we break down how to share a Story on Instagram and the different reposting options available on the app.

Step-by-step guide on how to repost a Story on Instagram

Here is every route, in the order you’ll actually reach for them. The first one now covers most of what people are trying to do.

How to repost someone’s public Instagram story

This is the default route, and it takes about three taps.

1. Open the story you want to reshare.
2. Tap Share in the bottom right.
3. Tap Add to story.
4. Tap Next in the bottom right, then tap Share.

The story editor opens on the way through, so you can add text, a sticker or a reaction before it goes out. Anyone watching your version can tap straight through to the account that made it, which is the part that keeps this fair rather than rude.

If there is no Add to story option on that share sheet, the account is private, the person has turned resharing off, or it is a teen account where the setting is off out of the box. None of those are anything you did.

How to repost an IG Story you’re tagged in

The mention route is separate from the one above, and it is the one that still works when the other account is private. Here is how it runs.

1. Open Instagram.

2. Go to Direct Messages.

3. Open the notification that says “@username Mentioned you in their story.”

4. Tap “Add to your story.”

5. In the story editor, you can add stickers, text, or additional tags, just like in any other story.

6. Tap “Send to” and choose “Your story.”

💡 Tip: If someone tags you in the first story in a sequence but not in the subsequent ones, you can only reshare the one in which you are tagged. 

How to repost a story on Instagram that you’re not tagged in

Most of the time you don’t need a workaround any more. Tap Share on the story, look for Add to story, and if it is sitting there, that is the whole job done.

When it isn’t sitting there, one of three things is true.

• The account is private. Instagram doesn’t allow story-to-story resharing from private accounts, and that is true no matter how your own account is set up.
• The account is public, but the person has moved Stories to stories to Followers you follow back, or switched it to Off entirely.
• It is a teen account, where story-to-story sharing is off by default.

None of those are things you can get round from your side, and trying to is how people end up somewhere they shouldn’t be. What you can do is ask. A short message saying you’d like to share their story, and where it will end up, works far more often than you’d expect.

If they say yes, there are three honest ways to do it.

• Take a screenshot or screen recording and upload it to your Story (always get consent first and credit the author). 
• Share the Story with friends or group chats via Direct Messages by tapping the paper airplane icon at the bottom of the Story. 
• Send a link to the Story by tapping the three dots in the top right corner of the Story and copying it. This is perfect for sharing outside of the app.

❗Worth being straight about. A story from a private account was only ever visible to that account’s followers. A screenshot you pass around is taking it somewhere the person never agreed to send it. Ask properly, or leave it alone.

How to repost Instagram feed posts to your story 

Feed posts work much like stories, with one extra condition attached. Instagram allows it only when the account is public and the person has left resharing of their posts switched on, and it adds that sharing posts from feed to stories isn’t available to everyone. So if the option is missing on an account that is clearly public, that second half is usually why.

Next time you come across an Insta post you want to reshare on your Story, follow these simple steps:

• Tap the paper airplane icon next to the comment bubble
• Select “Add post to your story”
• Use the Story editor to resize or reposition the feed post sticker, customize the background, or add music, text, and stickers

When reposting an Instagram post to your story, you have two options:

1. Repost the image on its own.
2. Tap the image first to preview it with the caption, then post both.

When you share the post to your Story, it will include a link to the original post and include the creator’s username.

Use the same steps to repost Instagram Reels or your own posts to your Stories.

Instagram’s Repost button is not the same thing

Instagram added a Repost button in August 2025, and it is easy to assume the button covers everything on the app. It doesn’t.

Instagram’s help page scopes it to public reels and feed posts. You tap Repost, add a line of text in the bubble by your profile picture if you want one, and the post lands in a Reposts tab on your profile where your followers can find it later. You can’t repost a repost, and you can’t repost anything from someone who has turned reposts off under Sharing and reuse.

What it does not touch is stories. A story isn’t a post, it is gone in 24 hours, and the Repost button never appears on one. If you have been hunting for that button while watching somebody’s story, that is the reason you can’t find it, and Share then Add to story is what you want instead.

For the button itself, we have a separate walkthrough on how to repost an Instagram post.

Creative tips and best practices when reposting IG stories

Resharing Story content on Insta is a great way to generate more engagement and boost visibility. For best results, follow these best practices for reposting IG Stories. 

1. Follow proper etiquette

As a business, it’s your responsibility to ensure you follow proper etiquette when reposting on Instagram. Doing so demonstrates you respect other creators and the platform’s guidelines.

Here are some examples:

• Ask for permission before posting someone else’s Story, especially if it’s not a public account.
• Tag the original creator, making sure it’s visible.
• Respect privacy settings – if someone doesn’t want you to repost their content, don’t.
• Don’t overdo it with the reposting. This type of content should be balanced with fresh and original Story content.
• Choose third-party reposting apps wisely to ensure they align with your brand image and messaging.
• Try to respond to direct messages promptly.
• Avoid reposting content that could be deemed inappropriate or offensive (or sharing content from a creator with controversial views).

2. Give credit to the original poster

We can’t stress this one enough. It’s essential to always credit the original creator by tagging them when you repost a story. 

Not only does this show respect and comply with Instagram’s guidelines, but it helps your audience discover new accounts to follow.

3. Customize fonts and background colors

One of the biggest challenges you will face when resharing IG Story content is making it align with your brand identity. It could look out of place if it’s too different from your brand’s usual style.

An easy way to solve this is to customize the reposted Story to give it your stamp. For instance, use your custom brand font and color palette to tailor the reposted Story and make it sit naturally alongside your other content.

Here’s how to add text to your Instagram Stories:

• Tap the “Aa” icon in the top-right corner
• Tap the color wheel to see IG’s selection of preset text colors (you can also match a color from your image using the eyedropper tool)
• Click and hold the dropper and drag it over an element in your photo that you want to color-match

This will help you maintain clear consistency in your IG aesthetics.

This is how to change the background color of your Instagram Story:

• Tap the three dots in the corner
• Select the “draw” icon
• A selection of colors will appear at the bottom. Pick one of those, or use the eyedropper tool to color-match
• Select your color
• Tap and press the image to change the background to your color of choice

4. Use custom GIFs

Everybody loves GIFs, including social media users. GIFs are also a perfect way to add a personal touch to your Instagram stories. You can use Instagram’s GIFs or create your own branded GIFs to strengthen your brand identity and help inspire user-generated content.

5. Use the Add yours sticker to source reposts

The best reposts are the ones you never had to chase, and the Add yours sticker is the cheapest way to cause them. You post a prompt, anybody can add their own story to the thread behind it, and you end up with a queue of content that was made to be passed on in the first place.

Keep the prompt narrow enough that somebody can answer it with one photo already sitting on their phone. “Your desk right now” gets replies. “What does our brand mean to you” gets silence.

✨ Related article: How to use Instagram question sticker to market your business?

6. Share links with link stickers

Adding links to stories is open to every account now, and has been for years. The old 10,000-follower gate is gone. Accounts that spread spam or break community guidelines can still lose access to the sticker, which is about the only catch left on it.

For a small business or a creator, the link sticker is the one reliable exit from the app to a product page. On a reposted story it earns its keep twice. You can point people straight at the thing the original creator happened to be holding.

To add a link to your Instagram story, you need to use the “Link” sticker. When users click on it, they will be redirected to an external page. To add a sticker with a link:

• Upload content to your story
• Select the sticker tool from the top navigation bar
• Tap the “Link” sticker to add your desired link and tap “Done”
• Add the sticker to your story and click on it to see color variations.

7. Add shoppable Instagram stickers

Shoppable stickers run across feed posts, stories and reels, though the eligibility is narrower than most guides let on. Instagram limits product stickers to businesses, partners and qualified public profiles, and the products themselves have to come from a brand with a shop on Instagram. Check before you plan a campaign around them.

E-commerce brands can use the “product” sticker in Instagram Stories to tag specific products, the same way you would on a regular Instagram shopping post. It lets you show a product in context and gives the viewer somewhere to go if they want it. 

8. Make the most of hashtags and mentions

Hashtags carry a lot less weight than they used to, and the documentation shows it. Instagram now caps tags at 5 on a post, a long way down from the 30 that most advice is still built around.

On a story you add one with the hashtag sticker, or you type it with the text tool. Either is fine. What has stopped being true is the idea that a pile of them buys you reach.

As well as hashtags, mentioning other relevant accounts (original creator, partners, collaborators, etc) can enhance discoverability. Not only do you introduce your audience to new accounts, but those accounts will do the same for you.

Needless to say, the more mentions your brand gets, the better (especially if you’re tagged). So tracking this data is essential.

That way, you can gauge how your social media strategy is performing and where more work is needed.

9. Track what gets reshared with a social media management tool

Speaking of performance, understanding how your social media strategy is performing is a must. It’s that simple. 

Whether you want to check in on how your curated IG Stories are landing with audiences or you need a comprehensive multi-platform overview, it is the same problem. 

A social media management tool is the quickest way to get at that data without three people exporting spreadsheets on a Friday. From scheduling through to analytics, something like Sociality.io keeps it in one place.

The Sociality.io Listen and Engage modules track every tagged and untagged mention across your social media platforms, which is how you find the stories worth resharing before they expire. 

Our social listening module keeps a close eye on brand health, with sentiment analysis, direct and indirect mention tracking, and advanced filters. It supports hundreds of languages, so you can read the room in every market you sell in.

With the engagement module, you have access to a unified inbox, a social CRM tool, a feature to assign conversation owners, and comprehensive KPI reports. 

Combined, they give you everything you need to monitor social media performance and see how your reposted Story content is faring.

If you’d rather not open a dashboard at all, our social media MCP server plugs the same account and competitor numbers into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, so you can just ask which posts pulled their weight.

10. Use a third-party reposting app

Third-party repost apps used to be the only way to get a clean copy of somebody else’s post onto your own grid. Instagram’s own Repost button took most of that job back in 2025. The case for them is a lot narrower than it was.

Third-party reposting apps streamline the process of sharing other users’ IG Stories on your profile. In some cases, these apps offer diverse customization options so you can tailor reposted content to your brand.

Repost+ for Instagram is a popular app available on iOS and Android.

11. Make it personal

Simply resharing Stories can seem a little impersonal and, dare we say it, lazy. So be sure to add a personal touch like a reaction or commentary to make the content more meaningful.

Instagram’s built-in engagement features are the easy way to make a repost yours. Drop a poll, a question box or a quiz on top of somebody else’s content and you have turned a pass-along into a conversation.

A great way to make reposted stories feel more cohesive is to create a theme or series of curated content. This allows you to tell a story that resonates with your audience.

Playing around with composition can also give reshared Stories a fresh take.

You’ll also want to add value to the original post when possible. This could involve providing additional context or sharing your personal experience or opinion. 

It might even be a funny GIF or a hashtag. The main thing is that you make it relevant and valuable to your audience.

Conclusion

We hope this has cleared up what you can and can’t reshare, because that is the part that actually changed. Reposting other creators’ content on Stories is still one of the better ways to strengthen a collaboration and introduce your audience to people they’ll want to follow.

As with everything in life, balance is key. Reshared content should be curated carefully, customized to align with your brand, and used sparingly. 

A social media management tool like Sociality.io is where you find out whether any of it worked, by tracking brand health, content performance and the conversations that come out of it.

Get your free trial today to start turning conversations into conversions.

Reposting on Instagram Story FAQs

When reposting an Instagram story doesn’t work

Three things cause it, and being untagged is not one of them. Usually the account that posted is private, because Instagram doesn’t allow resharing from private accounts at all. Or it is public, but the person has moved Stories to stories to Followers you follow back, or switched it off entirely, which is their call to make. Or it is a teen account, where that setting ships off. Any of those and the button simply isn’t drawn.

If you want to get a deeper understanding of your Instagram direct and indirect mentions’ sentiment analysis, numbers, frequency, and more, check out our social listening solution. 

How to reshare an Instagram story if your account is not tagged?

Try the default route first. Open their story, tap Share, then look for Add to story on the sheet that comes up. That works on any public account now, with no tag involved anywhere. If the option isn’t showing, the account is private or the person has turned resharing off, and the only honest next step is to message them and ask. Our social listening solution is how you find those stories in the first place when nobody has mentioned you directly.

Can you repost a story from a private account?

No. Instagram allows story-to-story resharing only when the account that posted is public, and your own privacy setting makes no difference to that either way. There is one exception, and it runs in the opposite direction. If a private account mentions you in their story and allows reshares, you can put that story on yours, and their followers will not be the only people who see it.

Can someone repost my story if my account is private?

Not by finding it and tapping Share, no. But if you mention someone in a story and you allow reshares, that person can put it on their own story, and Instagram warns that their followers will then be able to see it even though your account is private. If that isn’t what you had in mind, change the setting before you tag anybody.

How do I stop people resharing my story?

Go to your profile, open the menu, and find Sharing and reuse under how others can interact with you. Stories to stories decides who can reshare a story straight from your profile, and it offers Everyone, Followers you follow back, or Off. The separate Stories in messages toggle covers the people you mention. Both are account-wide settings rather than per-story ones.

Can I repost a whole Instagram story or only one frame?

One frame at a time, on both routes. Resharing works on the single story you are looking at, and a mention only hands you the frame you were actually tagged in. If somebody posts a five-part sequence and tags you in the first, the other four are not yours to pass on. Reshare them one at a time, or ask.

How to reshare Instagram stories via screenshots or recordings?

If the story is a photo, you can simply take a screenshot while it’s still active. This screenshot will be saved to your phone’s photo gallery, from which you can upload it to your content plan and share it via the scheduling solution or directly from your phone. 

For a video, use your phone’s built-in screen recorder. Start it, watch the story through, stop it, and the clip lands in your gallery with the sound intact, ready to upload. Do it with permission or don’t do it.

Why can’t I download Instagram Stories using third-party software?

There used to be many downloading solutions for Instagram highlights and stories. The process was easy. Users only had to open the solution, paste the link to their Instagram account, and click “Download.” The most famous solution was StorySaver.net. However, Instagram is actively closing its doors to such solutions, as they violate the security and privacy of Instagram users.