How to make your Instagram year in review
A year in review post shows your year month by month in one carousel: a cover, then a page for each month with a few photos and a short line about what happened. In Exposure it takes four steps. Write one line per month, let the AI turn it into recap text, open a yearly recap template, then add your photos and text month by month.
The 4-step process
- 1
Write one line per month
Create a new Moment. You don't need photos for this step and can add them later. Write one line for each month, as plain as you like: "January: ski trip to St. Moritz", "March: Mom's birthday", "September and October: busy at work". Short notes are enough. The next step turns them into recap text.
- 2
Turn your notes into recap text
Tap Transform and open the Templates tab. Pick one of the three yearly recap text templates, for example Snappy Yearly Recap, and tap the magic wand. Exposure rewrites your notes into a short passage per month with a heading, one or two lines and a few hashtags. You can edit the result like any other text.
- 3
Open a yearly recap template
Go to the Layout tab, create a new layout and choose "From Template". In the Yearly Recap section, pick Minimal Yearly Recap, which is free, or Analog Yearly Recap, which is part of Suite. Both have a cover and a numbered page for each month. The cover of Minimal Yearly Recap shows a year, which you can change with one tap.
- 4
Add photos and text for each month
Tap a placeholder text on a month page and select Edit. Your recap text from step 2 is ready there: select the passage for that month and tap "Insert into Layout". Then fill the photo slots. When all months are done, export the layout as an Instagram carousel or as a print-ready PDF photo book.
Year in review ideas beyond the photo dump
Instead of twelve random photos, pick one thread and follow it through the year:
- Month by month: one page per month, a few photos and one line about what happened.
- Travel wrapped: only the trips of the year, with a location label for each destination.
- Food review: the best meals, cafés and recipes of the year.
- Outfit recap: your favorite looks of the year, with a cut-out sticker or two.
- All your monthly recaps in one: if you posted a monthly recap during the year, pick the strongest slide from each and combine them.
For a single trip, the travel recap templates fit better than a full year.
Style your month labels
The month name is the label people read first, so give it its own look. Select the label, open Style and choose the location tag to add a pin icon in front of the month. Under Font, pick a script or typewriter font that matches your template. Under Color, set a background for the label and lower its transparency, so the label stays readable without hiding the photo behind it. An emoji after the month name, a snowman for January for example, adds a seasonal touch.
When to post your year in review
Most year in review posts go up between Christmas and the first week of January. Start collecting in November: write your monthly lines while you still remember the details, and put the photos into a Moment as you go. In December you then only have to fill the template and post.
For more on the templates, see the yearly recap template page. The seamless carousel guide shows how to connect slides, and the Instagram carousel size guide has all formats at a glance.