Instagram Stories is an engaging and fun feature where users post a series of photos or short-form videos that appear on Instagram for 24 hours. Going through the stories of competitors or influencers in your industry and you are wondering how it looks better than any you’ve ever created. There are fantastic filters, stickers, and even cute animation, and you know Instagram doesn’t provide all these, how then did they create it?

To create engaging stories, you need to invest in Instagram stories app. Yes, they are behind those excellent features you’ve seen around. They come with lots of free templates to add your creativity, contain images and videos editing tools, filters, beautiful collages, and so on. 

There are lots of apps you could use to get the best result. But we are going to list the best of them all that contains everything you’ll need to create engaging content that will blow the mind of your audience. Read on to find out about them:

InShot

The InShot app has everything you need to create an engaging Insta story. It contains both free and paid features and is compatible with both Android and iOS. With this app, you can edit your videos and photos, add music to the background of photos and videos, add filters and effects, etc. It comes with different templates that you can use for photo collages.

Canva

To download the Canva app, you need to have an Android phone or iPhone. And like many other apps, it contains both free and paid features. The app is a popular one that helps in leveling up social media content. 

It contains over 60,000 templates, more than a million background photos to give users a wide array of choices. It has various design tools such as photo vignette, grid, etc. For your Instagram stories, you can use its various stickers, texts, filters, badgers, and icons.

Adobe spark

With Adobe Spark app, you don’t need to be a professional designer to produce high-level content for your social media pages. You can edit images or use the various stock photos in their library. There are lots of effects, animation, filter, topography, cutouts, and lots more to use for a great Instagram story. You can also add sounds either from your mobile phone or the app’s collection.

One of their best features is being able to combine videos to create engaging stories. Some of the features in the app are free, and the others require a paid subscription. It is compatible with desktop, iOS, and Android.

Unfold

This app contains a library of templates to use in upgrading your Instagram stories content. It comes with templates such as polaroid, filmstrip, etc. The Unfold app also contains features such as collages and text options to add to your stories. You can mix different visuals such as photos, videos, texts in one story. 

It also allows you to preview the content you’ve created so that you’ll see how it will appear on your Instagram story. The app is free but comes with paid features. You can get up to 25 free templates to work with, but when you use the paid option, you get ninety more sophisticated features. You can use the app if you have an Android or iPhone.

Hype-Type

This app is also free, but you might have to pay for some of the features if you genuinely want to create remarkable Instagram stories with beautiful texts. It features lots of fun text animations, fonts, and styles that help your Instagram story. It is also effortless to use.

PhotoGrid

This app contains more than 300 templates to use for photo collages. It also includes features such as memes, GIF generator, backgrounds, face filter, scrapbook feature, etc. It is a free app with some paid features and compatible with both Android iOS. 

Microsoft Hyperlapse

The Android and desktop compatible app are great for creating time-lapse from old videos. You can also record with any speed you choose from 1x to 32x. You only have to upload the videos from your phone, edit, down, and save. If you want to record new ones with the app, go right ahead.

Lifelapse

The Lifelapse app is one of the best Instagram stories app to use as it has every feature you need to improve your content. It contains various editing tools such as filters, speed adjuster, stock music, and so on. You can create stop motion animations without needing to attend a graphics design class if you don’t know how to use the features, not to worry as there are lots of helpful tutorials to show you the ropes.

Over

A little bit of warning here, the Over app is an advanced editing app that would take some time getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, your Instagram stories will never remain the same. The app contains lots of templates for photos, backgrounds, stickers, fonts, texts, and lots more. It is compatible with both Android and iOS. It also a free app with an option to subscribe.

VSCO

You can play with some cool features in the VSCO app like the editing presets, photo filters, film X, and so much more. They are lots of photo and video editing tools to create fresh content for your Instagram stories, but if you wish to use the video editing app, you will have to pay for it. It comes with over 170 paid preset, although you can also choose to use the free editing presets, which are ten in number. If you don’t know how to navigate the app or use the tools, there are lots of tips and tutorials to help.

Design Kit

This app gives color to your otherwise plain and dull content. It contains brushes, stickers, fonts, backgrounds, templates, and other designing tools. They have free tutorials where you can learn about the use of the features to create compelling Instagram stories.

CutStory

If you can’t seem to create a 15 second content for your story, you can use the CutStory app to divide your long videos into 15-second videos to post on your stories as video series. This app works only for iPhone users, and it is free but includes some paid features.