What Are Instagram Collections and How Do They Work?

Find out everything you need to know about Instagram Collections, including what they are, how they work, and why you should use them.

Have you ever been scrolling through Instagram and wished you could save something to come back to later? Maybe it's a video you want to show a friend you will be seeing later, or a clothing item you are considering buying in the future.

Instagram Collections allow you to save any Instagram post that may catch your eye, and organize them however you see fit. Here’s how you can save posts, organize them into collections, and even blog about them, all on the Instagram platform.

What Are Instagram Collections?

Instagram first introduced its bookmarking tool to its platform in December 2016. According to Instagram, talking to TechCrunch at the time, the tool was created for, "When you stumble upon a funny video you want to remember, a new outfit you like or even inspiration for an upcoming vacation." This tool allows you to save those posts and keep track of them effectively.

In 2017, Instagram rebranded the bookmarking tool to Instagram Collections. With this rebranding, Instagram added organization capabilities. Instagram started allowing users to save posts into various folders they can create and name themselves.

This layout appears to rival the capabilities and purpose of Pinterest, which is also in the business of creating organized collections of posts, no matter what they may be. Instagram has found success in the past creating features that mirror or rival those of other platforms, a good example being Instagram Stories (mimicking Snapchat Stories).

How to Create a New Instagram Collection

1. Find a post you would like to save to your new Collection.

2. Press and hold the Bookmark button. Note that if you just press it without holding down, it will save to a general Collection.

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3. Press the + button. This step will look slightly different depending on your experimentation with the Instagram Collections in the past. If you have created a Collection before, that Collection, or group of Collections, will appear on this next screen. If you have never interacted with Instagram Collections, pressing the + button will automatically prompt you to name the new Collection you would like this post to go into.

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4. Title your new Collection and tap the Save button. No matter if your last step included pre-existing Collections or not, this step will look the same.

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Once you have completed those steps, you have successfully created and titled a new Instagram Collection. From now on if there is a post you would like to add to your new Collection, it will pop up when you hold down the bookmarking tool. If you would like to access all of your Collections at once and review them as a whole, you can do so on your profile page.

How to View Your Instagram Collections

1. Go to your profile page and click the three lines in the top-right corner.

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2. Click on the Saved button. This will take you to a screen that shows you all the Collections you have ever created. The cover photo for your Collection will default to whatever the first photo was that you added to it. However, you can change the cover photo if you wish.

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3. Click on the Collection you wish to view.

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On the Saved page you will notice you can also save items from Instagram Shopping to your Wishlist.

When they were first introduced in 2017, Instagram Collections sounded very similar in concept to Pinterest's Pinboards. The biggest difference being that they were not public, and they weren't helping users navigate where items from their saved items could be found online to purchase.

Instagram Collections today are still not as public as Pinterest, there being a whole extra step to post about a Collection. However, they now include that same shopping aspect that you can find on Pinterest.

Instagram started experimenting with shopping capabilities within Instagram back in 2016. It all started with products being linked to retailers’ websites within posts, and now, in 2022, Instagram has a whole tab dedicated to the Instagram Shop.

The Instagram Shop can now take you all the way through checkout and never have you leave the app. With these large strides of improvement to the Instagram Shop, using the wishlist from the Collections feature has become a key component to Instagram’s revenue stream.

How to Blog on Instagram Using Collections

1. Return to your Saved page using the steps outlined above.
2. Select a collection you would like to blog about.

3. Tap the Create Guide button in the top-right corner. Clicking this will allow you to select each post you would like included in your Guide which will appear similarly to a blog post. Note that only public posts will be available to use within a Guide, so if you notice a few photos are missing during this step, it is most likely due to them being housed on a private account.

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4. Click Next in the top-right corner. This will take you to a screen where you can edit your new Guide. You can change your cover photo, add titles and captions, and even add additional posts if you realize you are missing one.

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5. Tap Next in the top-right corner once you are pleased with your post. This will take you to a preview page, and you can either save your Guide as a draft or post it.

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6. Hit Share, and post your Guide to your feed. Your Guide will appear on your profile under a new tab especially dedicated for Guides.

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Why Should You Use Instagram Collections?

Instagram Collections can be used for a variety of different reasons by any type of Instagram user. You can create vision boards, organize memories into albums, create wishlists, and even blog on the Instagram platform using the Guides feature.

Instagram Collections can be as private or as public as you want. You can choose to save posts to your Collections purely for your own organization, or you can create Guides where you can publicly blog about the posts you have saved, and share the experience with your followers.