Update for September 2026: Instagram Story Highlights are still a supported profile feature, but the dedicated Highlights-tab design should not be treated as a universal layout on every account. Instagram tested and rolled out a heart-icon Highlights tab beginning in 2024, while its wider profile interface has continued to change through vertical thumbnails, thumbnail editing, and grid reordering in 2026.
The practical takeaway is simple: your account may show Highlights in a dedicated tab, on the main profile grid, or in a different arrangement as Instagram continues to refine profiles. The original redesign remains useful as a case study in profile UI/UX design, because it shows the trade-off between keeping archived content visible and reducing clutter above the main grid.
What Instagram Changed With Story Highlights
Instagram began testing a dedicated Story Highlights area in 2024. The design moved the familiar circular Highlight bubbles away from their long-standing position above the grid and into a separate profile tab identified by a rounded heart icon. Social Media Today reported that the tab used vertically aligned Highlight thumbnails and that Instagram was also experimenting with bringing selected Highlights into the main profile grid.
- Dedicated tab: The test grouped saved Story Highlights in their own profile section.
- Vertical presentation: Highlight covers were adapted to the taller profile-grid direction Instagram was pursuing. Social Media Today
- Grid integration: Instagram explored giving creators more control over which saved content appears in the main profile presentation.
Why Instagram Tested a Dedicated Highlights Tab
Instagram head Adam Mosseri described the redesign as an attempt to get more content above the fold and simplify profiles. Instead of permanently reserving a row of circular Highlight covers above the grid, the test separated archived Stories from the main content area while preserving creator control.
The reasoning is familiar in web design: a cleaner interface can make hierarchy easier to understand, but removing a prominent element can also reduce discovery. That tension is why a change like this should be evaluated through actual behavior rather than assumed to be better simply because it looks cleaner. UX research is the relevant discipline when a product team needs to determine whether users can still find and understand a feature after its placement changes.
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Is Instagram Removing Story Highlights?
No. The redesign concerned where Highlights appear, not whether creators can continue saving Stories to their profiles. Instagram's current profile experience has kept evolving since the original tab test. In 2026, Instagram released tools for editing profile thumbnails and then made grid reordering available more broadly, giving users more control over how profile content is presented.
That continued evolution is important because screenshots and instructions from one rollout wave can become outdated quickly. If your profile does not match the heart-tab examples, do not assume your Highlights were deleted or that your account is broken. Start with the controls currently visible in your app and use Instagram's help guidance for Story Highlights when you need to create, edit, or manage them.
How to Find and Manage Highlights When the Layout Changes
If your account has the dedicated Highlights tab, open the heart-icon tab on the profile to browse saved Highlights. That was the layout documented during the redesign rollout. Social Media Today
If your account offers grid placement controls, open the relevant Highlight and check the editing options available to that account. Labels and placement can change as Instagram tests interfaces, which is why older step-by-step instructions should be treated cautiously. The original rollout was also documented by Nerd's Chalk.
By June 2026, Instagram had also released the ability to rearrange content on the main profile grid, another sign that profile presentation is becoming more customizable rather than fixed.
What Creators and Businesses Should Measure
Do not build reporting around a metric that Instagram may not expose, such as a dedicated “Highlights tab taps” number. Instead, use the Story and profile insights actually available on your account and connect them to a business objective. Depending on the account and content, that can include views or reach, replies, link interactions, navigation behavior, profile activity, and downstream website traffic measured in your own analytics.
For creators and brands, a broader Instagram marketing strategy should decide what role Highlights play in the funnel. Product FAQs, testimonials, destinations, launches, and evergreen explainers can still be useful even if the interface gives them less immediate prominence. Brand Vision's guide to social media engagement and growth covers the wider relationship between reach, interaction, and business outcomes.
- Compare performance before and after major profile-layout changes when you have comparable data.
- Track the actions that matter to the Highlight's purpose, not vanity metrics alone.
- Review your profile periodically because platform UI changes can alter what visitors notice first.
What the Highlights Redesign Means in 2026
The dedicated Story Highlights tab was part of a wider shift toward a more customizable Instagram profile. Instagram's 2026 thumbnail-editing and grid-reordering releases continued that direction, giving users more control over presentation rather than locking every account into one static profile format.
For marketers, the lesson is to design for the behavior, not one screenshot of the interface. Keep important evergreen Stories organized, make covers understandable, and give key information another route through posts, Reels, captions, links, or your website. Highlights can support an Instagram profile, but they should not be the only place where essential information lives.
