Instagram stories is one of instagrams newest features that allows you to share things with your followers on-the-go without having to post it onto your feed. You can post pictures or videos in a form of a slideshow, very similar to Snapchat.
I love using stories to post mini videos, tutorials, sharing my favourite posts from other instagrammers and most of all, posting direct links to my favourite products and bargains. Here are my favourite five apps I use daily when posting on my instagram stories. The more you use each one, the easier it is to use. They are available for Apple and Android.
1. Unfold - FREE
Unfold is one of the newest apps I've started using for my instagram stories. There's a variety of different templates available which are all very minimal and easy to use. They have a handful of fonts but all of which are useable depending on which type of story you are uploading. I personally use Unfold when posting direct links and videos (the app allows you to use pictures and videos on any template).
2. VSCO - FREE (subscriptions available for some presets)
VSCO is a free app and the basic presets available to enhance and edit your pictures with are very useful. VSCO has the standard editing tool which allows you to control the contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness and more on your pictures without effecting the pixels. Although you can do these edits directly on instagram, the pixels are changed on there whereas on VSCO it stays the same.
3. Inshot - FREE (some paid options)
You can edit both pictures and videos on Inshot. The app allows you to add creative backgrounds to your posts and my most favourite thing about the app is the glitch effects you can add to your videos (check out my instagram highlights for examples). You can use Inshot as a normal video editing app, it just consists of extra effects that I've not seen on any other app. The 9:16 ratio is the instagram story ratio (when you use the app, you'll know what I mean)!
4. iMovie - FREE
iMovie is another video editing app. It's very easy to use once you've got the hang of it. After filming a video, I use this first to cut and edit and then Inshot (mentioned above) to add my effects. When asked which app I recommend for beginners to edit videos, it's definitely iMovie! I have it on my phone too so I can edit on my way to work.
5. Split Video - FREE
Last but not least, the most handiest app for instagrams 15 second video rule. After editing videos for my instagram stories, they were never just 15 seconds long - especially as I always kept the normal pace. Split Video allows you to split any long video into 15 second posts so all you have to do is upload them one by one onto your stories without having to worry about where it was cut off.