7 Creative Ideas For Instagram Stories Of You & Your Best Friends

Showing your besties some love on Instagram Stories is like the modern-day version of your MySpace Top 8. While you may not be pinning their profile pictures to your account, giving a shoutout on your Story is a way to let all of your followers know who would be in your Top 8 if that was still a thing. Of course, you can always post a simple selfie or group photo to your account, but there’s something special about putting some extra effort into your Instagram Stories with creative poses and layouts.

Whether you never miss the opportunity to post a birthday Story for your BFF or you just want a fun photo to soft tag your friends in — there are tons of ways to up your IG game and make Stories that resemble online masterpieces. Remember all the creations you used to make on Picnik in the early 2000s? Users have found ways to recreate that same aesthetic in an upgraded way by using different Instagram stickers, copy-and-paste hacks, and additional editing apps to give photos an intentional-without-trying-too-hard look. Below are seven Instagram story ideas you can use with friends that aren't basic and tips for editing them directly on your phone.

The Film Strip

Users have been formatting black rectangles with white dots on the edges to resemble a retro-inspired photo strip. From there, adding three or more pictures gives a unique look to an otherwise basic friend group photoshoot.

The Bird’s Eye “Phone Eats First” Photo

The glasses clinking Boomerang might be DOA. Instead, try a bird’s eye view of your table as your friends grab for the food they want or drench their plate in ketchup — the action will make the picture appear super candid and bring a new look to the “phone eats first” motto.

The Album Cover

Choose the song that defines your friendship and turn your photo into its album cover using this easy-to-follow hack from TikTok user @bbyb3a. A Spotify sticker that looks like the pause, play, and share button on the music listening app adds a detail that makes this Story idea super cool.

The Tri-Color Gradient Background

Make your photo pop by using a three-hue background and the dropper tool to match with the shades in your picture. Ideal for bestie photos in front of sunsets or other colorful scenes.

The Photo Markup

This Instagram Story idea is really cute since you can give each of your friends a distinct design. In your iPhone photos, choose a photo then press the “Edit” button in the top right corner. On the editing screen, there’s a marker button in the top right corner that will allow you to choose what tool and color you want to write with. Once chosen, you can add angel wings, heart eyes, and other handwritten doodles to your photo.

The Scrapbook

If you really want to take your IG Story game seriously, some users like @taytoom use additional editing apps like Picsart and Procreate to make scrapbook-level photo layouts. For some features you do have to pay for a subscription, so keep that in mind before you set your heart on a scrapbook Instagram Story.

The Aesthetically-Pleasing Stickers

A simple way to add flair to a photo with your friends is by choosing cute stickers you can find on the Instagram app. User @Mayamaianh shares her favorite sticker artists that you can type directly into the Instagram Story editing sticker search bar to scroll through your favorites.