Instagram now lets you put Story filters on existing photos and videos

This might sound like a minor feature, but it’s actually a big deal: Instagram now lets you add Story filters — think silly ears, ridiculous sunglasses, etc. — to existing photos and videos. Before this change, you were only able to apply these filters while taking a photo or video.  

According to Android Police, the changed has been rolling out on Android recently; for me it works on both iOS and Android.

We’re not sure for how long, exactly, has this feature been there; we’ve asked Instagram about it and will update this article when we hear from them. 

To access the feature, start up a new story, add an existing photo or video, then tap on the smiley face with stars on top and you’ll get an assortment of filters you can apply. 

The number of filters available isn’t huge and it won’t work every time — doing it live is still better as sometimes you just need to tweak the photo a little bit for the filter to kick in, and since you can’t do that on existing photos, some filters may not work at all. 

It’s still a very important addition for heavy users of Instagram’s Story feature, who can now get creative not only with their own photos, but also clips from films, TV shows and the like.