Showing off your holiday pics to the world, telling the story of a night out, building your brand or business, or just posting something you find funny? Why not elevate it and extend its reach by tagging relevant family, friends, colleagues, and business partners in your story? It’s super easy and the only way to ensure that those individuals can share your original post in their own story.
To learn how to tag someone in your Instagram story, just follow our step-by-step guides below. For any additional information, or if you have any other queries, please direct your attention to our FAQs at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to tag someone in your Instagram story (iOS/Android)
- Open up the Instagram app on your mobile or tablet device and sign into your profile if necessary
- Create a story by first tapping the (+) icon at the top of the homepage
- Swipe to ‘Story’ and either take a photo, upload one from your Camera Roll/Gallery by tapping the appropriate icon in the bottom left, or create a story from any one of Instagram’s in-built templates (like ‘Poll’, ‘Quote’, ‘Quiz’, etc.)
- Once you’ve created the background and edited your story until you’re happy with it, the last thing to do is to tag whoever you want to tag in the story. First, tap anywhere on the story to begin typing.
- Next, type ‘@’ to indicate you wish to tag someone, and then begin typing the user’s name (or, preferably, their Instagram handle).
- Instagram will generate users which best match the name you’ve began typing, you can either type out the user’s specific handle in full, or tap on their profile image as it pops up, which will automatically fill out the rest of their name in text (you can edit the colour, font and background of this text as you would any other story text)
- Tag as many users as you like in this fashion, and when happy, tap ‘Done’ in the top right
- You can now adjust the size and positioning of the tagged names by pinching and dragging as you normally would with text on a story.
- Once you’re happy with the positioning of the text, simply upload your story by tapping ‘Your Story’ in the bottom left of the screen, or by hitting ‘Send to’ and then choosing ‘Share’ next to ‘Your Story’ or one of your custom lists.
And there you have it! It’s a pretty straightforward process once you’ve tried it out a couple of times, and will totally change the way you create your stories. Just remember, there’s no way to go back in and add a tag later, or even remove an accidentally placed tag, so check and double-check before uploading!
For any additional information or queries, see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
Why would I want to tag someone in my Instagram story?
Just like tagging a friend or company in a post of yours, tagging someone in your Instagram story is the best and most efficient means of both bringing their attention to it and showing their involvement in it. If, for example, you’re uploading a picture of you and your siblings to your story, tagging them in it will send them a notification that they’ve been tagged, and will show others who watch your story just exactly who’s featured in it.
More than just this, though, perhaps the most beneficial feature of tagging someone in a story is that only by doing so can you give them the means to share that story. Whilst others may share a Feed Post of yours to their story without needing permission (provided you have a public account), this is not true for sharing someone else’s story on your own.
Instagram Stories, which disappear after just 24 hours, is becoming one of the most popular features of the app, and of social networking in general, so it can be a real pain when someone shares a story with you in it but forgets to tag you. Only those tagged in a story are able to then share that story to their own story.
Thus tagging other users in your own story can be a great way of elevating your brand, since only by doing so can you ensure a wider reach for each story (provided those tagged then reshare it).
Who can I tag in my Instagram story?
You can tag absolutely anyone in your Instagram story! (With the sole exception of those with private accounts.) You can tag companies, influencers, friends, and family, whether you follow them or not! The only difference is that with those you follow, you’ll be able to find them pretty easy to tag even if you can’t remember their exact handle, whereas with users you don’t follow, you’ll have to have memorized their specific handle if you want to tag them in your story.
Can I untag someone if I accidentally tagged them in the first place?
Unfortunately not. One of the surprisingly rigid features of Instagram stories is the inability to edit them once they’re up. We’re not exactly sure why Instagram is so strict on this (perhaps the ability to edit stories just hasn’t been implemented yet), because it can be a real pain at times.
If you’ve tagged someone in your Instagram story, posted the story, and have only just realized that you tagged the wrong person, or never meant to tag anyone in the first place, there is, unfortunately, no way to quickly go back in and remove the tag.
However, all hope is not lost. There is still one recourse you can take, namely: deleting the story and starting again. It’s a bit of a drastic measure, sure, but it’s the only way.
To do so, open up your story and navigate to the part of it with the person tagged who you wish to untag. Tap the three dots in the bottom right (or top right, depending), and from the menu select ‘Delete’. Now, back on the homepage, tap the (+) symbol, and recreate your story, ensuring that this time you either tag the right person or don’t tag anyone at all.
Can you untag yourself if someone else has tagged you in their story?
Again, unfortunately not. Hopefully, this isn’t something that becomes an issue for you very often (if at all), anyway. Still, if someone’s uploaded a story and tagged you in it (perhaps it features a picture of you you don’t like, or implicates you in something you’d rather distance yourself from), it can be really frustrating.
We wish there was a simple ‘Untag’ button or Settings option, but they’re just isn’t. You’ve only a few options. Either, you can contact the original poster and ask that they take down the story, or you can tap the three dots on the story itself, and then tap ‘Report…’. Follow the on-screen instructions to report the story to Instagram. This will not immediately remove your tag from the post or remove the story itself but will raise it as potentially problematic to the Instagram authorities, who may then decide to have the story taken down, depending on whether they feel it’s a breach of their user terms and conditions.
Reporting anything is a pretty extreme recourse, so we definitely recommend trying to contact the original poster and reasoning with them first, before considering any further action.
How many people can I tag in my Instagram story?
As many as you like!
