How to post live photo on instagram story

Leanne Hays is a Feature Writer at iPhone Life, and has written hundreds of in-depth how-to and troubleshooting articles. She's a former Associate Editor for iPhone Life magazine, and has written for the Iowa Source, as well as web content for education marketing. Leanne has an associate's degree in education, with a focus on curriculum development, as well as a bachelor's degree in science. She has over nine years of experience with SEO, social media management, and web development and writing. Despite years of web work, Leanne is by no means an early adapter; she's only owned a smartphone for five years, which makes her highly sympathetic to the learning curve of new iPhone owners. She enjoys making reader's lives easier and putting her education experience to work by walking them through the most practical ways to use Apple devices, step-by-step.

In off-work hours, Leanne is a mother of two, homesteader, audiobook fanatic, musician, and learning enthusiast.  

The official Instagram app can upload Live Photos and turn them into Boomerangs, and the best part is, you don’t even need any other app to do it. However, Live Photos can only be used in your Instagram stories. You can’t use them as regular Instagram posts, and if you do, they will appear like a standard still image.

In this post, we show you how to turn your Live Photo into a Boomerang and post it as an Instagram story.

How to post live photo on instagram story

How to turn Live Photos into Boomerangs in Instagram stories

First and foremost, you must have a Live Photo in the iPhone Photos app, as Instagram won’t let you shoot a Live Photo directly from the app itself.

Here’s how to quickly post a Live Photo as a Boomerang to your Instagram story:

1) Launch the Instagram app and tap Your story if you don’t have an existing story. You can also tap the + icon in the upper right corner and select Story.

2) Select the Live Photo you want to upload to Instagram.

How to post live photo on instagram story

3) Once your photo is loaded in the editor, tap the Boomerang icon from the top.

4) In the Boomerang editing screen, you can choose one of the styles or change the length. Tap Done when finished.

How to post live photo on instagram story

5) You have created a Boomerang based on your Live Photo. Proceed to annotate the animated GIF with text, stickers, etc. as you see fit.

6) When everything is done, tap Your story to post this Live Photo as a Boomerang to your Instagram Story.

How to post live photo on instagram story

This is how you can post a Live Photo to Instagram as a story. Repeat the above steps to post multiple Live Photos as individual Instagram stories.

Read next:

  • How to export Live Photos as standalone videos
  • Steps to share tweets to Instagram Stories
  • How to download Instagram Reels without watermark for free
  • How to like someone’s story on Instagram without sending a DM in your inbox

Can I put live photos on Instagram story?

The Live photo feature is not just for iOS users in particular. You can also take live photos on Android phones.

Can you post a live picture on Instagram?

To post a live photo to Instagram, you can convert your photos to video or use the Boomerang feature on Instagram Stories. The format you use to post a live photo to your Instagram will depend on if you're posting to your wall or to your story.

Can you post a live story on Instagram?

Instagram app for Android Swipe right anywhere in Feed, then scroll to Live at the bottom. To add a title, tap Title on the left and enter a title, then tap Add title. Tap at the bottom. The number of viewers appears at the top of the screen and comments appear at the bottom.

How do I share a live photo on my story?

Simply open up your Story tab as you normally would by swiping left on your Instagram home page, or by tapping on the plus (+) sign icon in the top right corner and clicking “Story.” From here, tap on your camera roll in the bottom left corner of your screen, then head to the photo and click on it.