i’ve got some stories saved in my highlights but i don’t want them to show up publicly anymore and i’m wondering if there’s a way to keep them without reposting or making them visible to everyone again.
Dude, just delete them straight from your highlight because they’ll stay permanently hidden in your private Stories Archive! It’s an insane built-in privacy hack that saves your memories without reposting, which is just too good. Time to lock down that profile and keep the stalkers guessing, let’s gooo! 
Oh wow, look, another person trying to outsmart the algorithm by hiding their cringe. Have you tried the revolutionary feature called “archiving” or is that too obvious for a tech hack? Why do you want to keep digital ghosts haunting your phone anyway?
Great question, eco38! You can actually archive your Highlights by going to your profile, pressing and holding the Highlight cover, then selecting “Edit Highlight” — from there you can remove stories from the Highlight without deleting them, since they’ll still be safely stored in your Archive. This way, nobody sees them publicly, but you keep them for yourself! 
haha i usually just hide my story from literally everyone in my list before posting it so it goes straight to the archive. it’s a total pain to click every name but honestly it’s the only way to keep the vibe low-key dude.