Story Safe Zones
Check nothing important sits under the story or reel UI.
About Story Safe Zones
Story Safe Zones overlays the areas that Instagram’s interface covers on a story or reel, so you can check that nothing important sits underneath. The top band is the profile row and progress bars; the bottom is the reply box, or on reels the caption and audio name; reels also lose a strip down the right to the action buttons.
How to use it
- Drop in your story or reel cover, ideally 1080 × 1920.
- Switch between Story and Reel — reels cover considerably more.
- Move any text out of the red bands.
Questions
How much of a reel is actually covered?
Roughly the top 8%, the bottom 28% and the right 18%. The bottom is the big one — captions and the audio strip take far more room than people expect.
Are these exact?
Approximate. Placement shifts between app versions and phone models, particularly around notches and home indicators. Keep important text well inside rather than right at the boundary.
What size should a story be?
1080 × 1920, a 9:16 ratio. The tool warns if your image is a different shape, because Instagram will crop it.
Story Safe Zones is free and runs entirely in your browser. No account, no upload, no watermark, no limit on use.