How To Post Camera Roll (Gallery) Photos On Instagram Story

Level up your Instagram game by learning how to post camera roll (gallery) photos on your Instagram story.

Simply follow our step-by-step instructions, and see the FAQs at the end of this article for any additional information, or if you’re left with any further queries at the end of the tutorial.

Note: You can only post camera roll or gallery photos to your story from a mobile or tablet device, you cannot post stories on the desktop or website version of Instagram.

How to post camera roll (iOS) or gallery (Android) photos on Instagram stories

  1. Open the Instagram app on your mobile device, and sign in to your Instagram profile if necessary
  2. From the homepage, tap the (+) icon up top to begin creating a post/story/reel/IGTV
  3. Next, tap ‘Story’ along the bottom to ensure that what you’re about to create and post will end up as an Instagram story
  4. Now, to access and select from your camera roll/gallery, tap the small white-bordered, rounded square in the bottom-left. You’ll know it’s your camera roll/gallery because the thumbnail should be that of the latest photo/video you’ve taken or added to your camera roll/gallery.
  5. Your camera roll/gallery will be pulled up from you to choose from, select one or multiple photos (see the FAQs for notes on selecting multiple photos)
  6. You’ll be taken back to the editing screen, where you can edit your camera roll/gallery photos to your heart’s content, just as you would have any normal story
  7. When satisfied with your story post(s), simply tap ‘Next’ or ‘Done’ and finish uploading them to your story

And there you have it! You can take your Instagram game to the next level just by learning how to post camera roll and gallery photos directly to your Instagram story. To learn about doing so with videos, or for any other queries and information, check out our FAQs below.

Frequently asked questions

Why would I want to post camera roll (gallery) photos on my Instagram story?

Instagram is one of the most well-beloved and popular image-sharing social networking platforms in the world right now, and one of its most popular features is its ‘stories’. An Instagram story is a tale you tell of your day in pictures and videos, edited in any number of ways to reflect the ‘story’ you wish to tell. The key feature of Instagram stories is that, unless you ‘highlight’ them, they disappear after 24 hours.

Usually, when you go to create a story, you’re presented first off with your phone’s camera, whether front or back, thus prompting you to take an image or video clip. Alternatively, of course, you can tap ‘Create’ and simply create a story with a quiz, quote, poll, or some music on a blank or colorful, non-photo background.

What you might not know, is that you can also post photos from your camera roll (iOS) and gallery (Android) directly to Instagram stories. Doing so means that pictures you took earlier in the day, without an internet connection, for example, can still be uploaded to stories. Similarly, pictures you’ve been sent or downloaded can also be uploaded from your camera roll/gallery to your story.

Essentially, this just gives you much more versatility with what you can do with your Instagram story. To learn how to master the art, simply follow our step-by-step guide above.

Can I post multiple photos from my camera roll (gallery) at once?

Yes, absolutely! When you tap that little camera roll/gallery icon as we discussed above, you can then tap the ‘select multiple’ icon (looks like two rectangles overlapping) to the top-right. Once you’ve done this, just tap up to 10 pictures from your camera roll or gallery to select them for adding to your story (you can arrange their order now, or later, when in editing).

Can I edit my camera roll (gallery) photos as usual before uploading them to my story?

Yep! Once you’ve selected the image(s) from your camera roll or gallery (and press ‘Next’ if selecting multiple), you’ll be taken to the editing screen, where you can edit as you normally would, with filters, overlays, GIFs, music, text, you name it! To edit multiple images from your camera roll or gallery like this, just hop between them by tapping the relevant thumbnail from the row along the bottom (which you can also cycle through by swiping left and right). 

Once satisfied with your edit(s), simply tap ‘Done’ or ‘Next’ and then upload the edited image(s) to your story.

Does the same method work for camera roll (gallery) videos and music?

It sure does! You can add videos to your Instagram story directly from your camera roll (gallery) simply by following the same technique described in the tutorial above. You can edit the video similarly. 

Just remember that each individual element of your story can only be so long, so any lengthy videos will be (automatically) broken up over several individual story panes.