How to Repost a Story on Instagram: A Complete Guide

Reposting a Story You Are Tagged In

This is the most common reposting scenario and the only one Instagram supports with a dedicated, built-in button. When another account tags you in their story, you receive a notification in your DMs and on your activity feed. From there, adding it to your own story takes a few taps.

Step-by-step

1. Open the direct message from Instagram that says a user mentioned you in their story, or tap the notification in your activity feed.
2. Tap Add to Your Story. Instagram opens the story editor with the original story content already loaded as a sticker.
3. Customise the story: resize or reposition the sticker, add text, stickers, music, polls, or a location tag. The original creator's username is automatically included and linked.
4. Tap Your Story (or Close Friends if you want a limited audience) to publish.

The reposted story will appear on your profile's story ring for 24 hours, just like any other story. Viewers can tap through to the original creator's profile from the embedded tag.

Things to know

• The original creator is notified when you add their story to yours using this method.
• The tag must be to your exact account. If they tagged a different account or used a hashtag mention instead of an @mention, the Add to Your Story button will not appear.
• You have 24 hours. Once the original story expires, the repost option disappears. Act quickly if you want to share it.
• Private accounts can restrict this. If the creator's account is private, their sharing settings may prevent the repost option from appearing even if you are tagged.

Story reposts are one of the most effective ways to boost your Instagram story views organically. When you share a tagged story, you are creating a two-way signal that the algorithm reads as genuine engagement between accounts — which can improve how often your stories are surfaced in followers' trays.

Reposting Someone Else's Story When You Are Not Tagged

Instagram does not provide a native repost button for stories you are not tagged in. This is by design — stories are meant to be ephemeral, and the platform gives creators control over where their content appears. That said, there are legitimate ways to share the content if you follow proper etiquette.

Method 1: Send the story via DM and share from there

1. Open the story you want to share.
2. Tap the paper-plane (share) icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Send it to your own account or to a close friend. This creates a DM thread with the story linked.
4. Open the DM, tap the story preview, and take a screenshot or screen recording from there.

This method preserves a private copy you can reference, but the story itself is not repostable through the DM — you will need to use the screen-recording approach below to actually reshare it on your story.

Method 2: Screen recording (with credit)

1. Open the story and use your phone's built-in screen recorder (available on both iOS and Android) to capture the content.
2. Open Instagram, create a new story, and upload the screen recording from your camera roll.
3. Tag the original creator with an @mention sticker. This is essential — reposting without credit is considered poor etiquette and can lead to your content being reported.
4. Publish the story.

Etiquette and permissions

Just because you can screen-record someone's story does not mean you should do it without asking. Best practice is to DM the creator first and ask for permission to reshare. Most creators are happy to have their content shared — especially if you tag them — but asking first shows respect and avoids potential conflicts. This is particularly important for branded content, sponsored posts, and content from business accounts where intellectual property matters.

Instagram does not notify users when you screenshot or screen-record their story (this changed years ago — the notification feature was tested briefly and removed). For a full breakdown of which content types do and do not trigger notifications, see our guide on whether Instagram notifies screenshots. However, the ethical standard in the creator community is clear: always credit, and ask when possible.

Method 3: Ask the creator to tag you

The simplest approach is often to DM the creator and ask them to add your @mention to the story. If the story is still live (within 24 hours), they can edit it or repost it with your tag. Once you are tagged, the native Add to Your Story button appears and you can reshare with full attribution in seconds.

Reposting Your Own Feed Post to Your Story

Instagram makes it easy to share your own feed posts — photos, carousels, and Reels — directly to your story. This is one of the most underused distribution tactics on the platform. When you repost a feed post to your story, followers who missed it in the feed get a second chance to see it, and the story acts as a tappable link back to the original post.

Step-by-step

1. Open the feed post you want to share (photo, carousel, or Reel).
2. Tap the paper-plane (share) icon below the post.
3. Select Add Post to Your Story from the options.
4. Instagram opens the story editor with a preview card of your post. You can resize, rotate, and reposition the card. Add text, stickers, polls, or music to give context — a simple "New post" or "Did you catch this one?" prompt works well.
5. Tap Your Story to publish.

Why this matters for reach

Instagram's algorithm surfaces feed posts and stories through different ranking systems. A Reel might not land in the Explore feed, but the same content shared to your story reaches followers who check stories first. For Canadian creators building an audience, this dual-distribution approach means your content gets two bites at the algorithm — once in the feed, once in the story tray. If you are working on growing your Instagram Reel views, reposting Reels to your story is a free amplification lever that compounds over time.

Tips for effective feed-to-story reposts

• Do not just share the card with no context. Add a text overlay that tells viewers why they should tap through — a question, a teaser, or a one-line summary.
• Time it strategically. Share the story a few hours after the feed post goes live, when initial engagement has settled. This catches followers who were not online during the first push.
• Use it for evergreen content too. Resharing an older post that is still relevant can revive its engagement and push it back into algorithmic circulation.
• Do not overdo it. Sharing every single feed post to your story trains followers to skip the story version. Reserve it for your strongest content.

Why Reposting Stories Boosts Reach and Engagement

Reposting stories — whether from other creators or from your own feed — is not just a convenience feature. It is an engagement strategy that works with Instagram's algorithm rather than against it.

Cross-pollination between accounts

When you repost a story from another creator (and they repost yours), both accounts benefit from exposure to each other's audiences. Instagram's algorithm interprets these interactions — DMs, story shares, tags — as signals of a genuine relationship between accounts. The more cross-account activity, the more likely the algorithm is to surface each account's content to the other's followers. This is especially powerful for Canadian creators in niche communities where audience overlap is high.

Stories feed the engagement loop

Instagram tracks how often a follower interacts with your stories (views, replies, sticker taps, shares). The more interaction your stories generate, the higher your account ranks in that follower's story tray — meaning your story appears closer to the front. Reposting tagged stories keeps the interaction cycle going: the original creator tagged you, you reshared, their followers discover you, and the algorithm logs all of it as positive engagement.

Story views compound into feed visibility

There is a direct relationship between story engagement and feed post reach. Accounts with strong story interaction tend to see their feed posts ranked higher in followers' feeds as well. Instagram uses overall account engagement — not just post-level metrics — to decide how much distribution to give your content. Building a consistent Instagram following is the foundation, but keeping that audience engaged through stories is what turns followers into reach.

User-generated content and social proof

For businesses and brands, reposting customer stories that tag your account is one of the strongest forms of social proof available on Instagram. It shows prospective followers and customers that real people use and talk about your product or service — far more convincing than any branded graphic. Canadian small businesses that make reposting customer stories a daily habit consistently report higher story completion rates and more direct-message inquiries than those that rely solely on original story content.

FAQ: Reposting Stories on Instagram