(Unfold, like all of the apps on this list, also has paid options.

(You can give it a name - like “That Time I Ran a Marathon and Bragged About It a Lot” - to help keep them organized.) From there, you’ll be shown a number of template options, including ones for single images, ones for clusters, and ones with captions. Inside the app, you’ll tap the plus sign at the bottom of the page to begin building your Story. Unfold gets points from the start for being stupidly easy to use and not requiring new users to make any sort of account. If it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me. Instagram’s most-followed user, Selena Gomez, uses our first pick. This list is by no means exhaustive, but here are four apps, in no particular order, to get you started. Turns out all you need to con the world into thinking you’re living the influencer life are a couple of free apps and some patience. I assumed, wrongly, that these influencers were building these Stories themselves using Photoshop, a skill I possess only in the loosest sense of the word, and by that I mean a skill I possess in theory because I have the program on my computer. It’s a lot of clean lines and diptychs and captions written in fonts that don’t come standard on the app. There’s a certain style of Instagram Stories that is popular among influencers.

This is, after all, the true spirit of Instagram Stories, which openly aped Snapchat and then beat it at its own game. If I see you doing something cool … I’m going to copy it. Screenshot a rainbow pattern, draw over it using the black paint tool, and then use the eraser to write a colorful message. Out of a bizarre sense of loyalty to Snapchat, I was a late adopter of Instagram Stories. Use these third-party apps to up your Instagram Stories game.

Cool instagram layouts