How To Add Location To Instagram Stories

Today, Instagram announced a major upgrade to Stories with the addition of a new Instagram sticker tool that lets users add seasonal stickers and stickers with contextual info like the weather, time, and location. If you’re wondering how to add locations to Instagram Stories using geotags in the app, look not further. I’ve got the full story here — and the short version is “It’s super easy.”

The Instagram’s new sticker tool allows Story makers to add emoji and seasonal stickers (snowflakes, anyone?) to Stories, along with location tags, the temperature, and the time. The location tags will be especially handy for giving context to Stories, especially when you're traveling.

To add locations to your Stories, the first thing you need to do is get the update. Sometimes updates will download and install on their own, but once and a while you have to do it manually. If you don’t already have the update, go to the App Store, tap “Updates” in the lower right corner, look for an Instagram update and download it. (For what it’s worth, I had to download the update manually on my phone, but once I did, the new features worked just fine.)

Once you have the update, you can add your location to your Stories. Here’s how:

1. Swipe right on the screen to start a Story.

Take a photo or a Boomerang. (You can add stickers to both!)

2. Tap the happy-face icon at the top of the screen.

If you don’t see the icon, you don’t have the update, and you should head over to the App Store.

3. Choose “Location” from the menu of stickers.

A menu will pop up with a list of locations near you. Select the correct one, or look for it in the search bar. (When I tried this, a whole range of places showed up, from nearby restaurants to my apartment building.)

4. Customize your sticker.

You can tap the sticker to change its visual style, and use your fingers to move, expand, or shrink it. If you want to get rid of a sticker, just press on it and drag it down into the trashcan at the bottom of the screen.

And that’s it — You’ve added your location! While you’re at it, go ahead and deck out your Stories with some holiday cheer. For a limited time, you can add holiday stickers (Christmas trees! Ugly sweaters! Dreidels! Go wild!) to your Stories, in addition to your normal emoji.

Images courtesy of Instagram (3).