Instagram’s Story Drafts Are Back

Once discontinued on Instagram, the app’s drafting functionality has finally been re-introduced following the respective announcement. The feature will likely make life much easier for professional bloggers and other regular posters. You’ll probably appreciate it if you often have a hard time deciding whether this or that post deserves to appear in your stories, too. Here’s how the feature works.

To make use of the story draft functionality, first, you need to initiate a post in your stories. When you are about halfway through, say, you have chosen a photo and have been working on it using the app’s built-in editor, you can simply leave without worrying about your effort being wasted. Since the draft saving is enabled by default, the half-finished story will be stored as a draft unless you explicitly opt for its deletion. If you do keep the draft, it will be kept for up to one week. When the draft expires, Instagram will give you a notification so that you don’t waste time and energy looking for a post that’s simply not there anymore.

It seems more likely not more than one week will prove enough for most users to make up their minds. Even those who create really elaborate stories with lots of well-thought-out detail will probably manage to either complete a draft within the seven days or discard it altogether. This feature eliminates the need for third-party software Insta bloggers often relied on to save drafts. You don’t have to save the drafts to your phone either. All you need to do is make sure you keep the draft until you have a lightbulb moment and/or the potential reach is at its best. Unlike more experimental Instagram features that are often tested on a limited geographic scale, story drafts are now available across the globe.