How to change the background color of an Instagram story

Social media is all about making an excellent first impression, so you’ve got to get the aesthetics of your posts just right. If you’re planning on posting an IG story, that means selecting the right font for your text and filter for your photo, stickers to decorate the image and music to get your followers jamming.

It also means choosing the right Instagram Story background color.

Instagram typically picks a default background color for a Story’s image, and the app usually does a good job pulling tones already in your photo as the default background color, giving your post a coherent look.

But you can make the Instagram Story background color whatever you want. Moving away from the default and changing the color can make your Story pop, drawing more attention from your viewers. And you might like the post’s look better when choosing a complementary tone that’s different from what Instagram intuits.

This tutorial outlines how to change the background color of your Instagram Story. Let’s kick your content into hyperdrive.

Changing an Instagram Story’s background

Open up the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android device and follow along as we discuss how to change the background on “Create''-style and photo Stories.

On Create

Instagram allows you to create Stories that don't contain photos. This Story style is popular for informational posts like virtual flyers or announcements. These Stories feature a gradient or solid background color for layering text and stickers.

To change the background on “Create” Stories:

1. Open Instagram and choose your profile photo from the Story bar at the top of the page. If you’re adding a slide to a Story that’s already up, click on the little plus sign on your profile photo in the upper left-hand corner of your current Story slide.
2. Click on the “Aa” icon on the left-hand side of the screen to create a new slide.
3. To change the background, click on the little circle in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. There are limited color options (pink, purple, blue-green, rainbow, light gray, black and yellow-orange). If none of these hues are your jam, don’t worry: we’ll explain how to add a custom color in the next section.
4. Tap on the screen to add text to your slide, or click on the sticker icon at the top of the screen to add a location, mention, music and more. Want to add a photo on top of your new background? Scroll down in the stickers tool to the camera roll icon. Hint: it’s a little circle with your last photo featured in it. When you tap on the icon, you can add any photo from your image library to the Story and resize it as needed.

Photo Stories

Changing the background on a photo Story isn’t intuitive, but there’s an easy workaround. It may seem a little convoluted, but stick with us. You’re only a few taps away from getting the perfect custom background color:

1. Follow step one from above to start a new Story slide. Click on the preview of your image library on the lower left-hand side of the screen and add the photo you want to post. While you could choose any image at this stage since we’re simply tricking the app into letting us change the background color, it’s best to start with the picture you plan to post. We’ll explain why below.
2. Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the screen to bring up the Draw tool. Tap on Draw.
3. The pen tool is selected by default, so use it to tap on any of the tonalities at the bottom of the screen or use the eyedropper tool to choose a hue from your photo. Remember when we said it couldn’t hurt to start with the image you want to display in the end? That’s because when you select a color with the dropper tool, it’s a hue pulled from the color palette of your photo. If you want a blank Instagram Story background, set the color to white.
4. Press and hold down on your screen for a couple seconds and the background color of your slide will change to the hue selected. The only problem: now your photo is covered up. We’ll explain how to fix this in the next step. For now, tap Done in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to save your color selection.
5. To add a photo on top of your new solid-hue background, tap on the sticker tool at the top of the screen. Scroll down to the camera roll icon and tap on it to add any photo from your image library.

Keep customizing

You can do more than change your Insta Story’s background by taking advantage of all the tools Instagram offers for this format.

If you’re a business, add a link sticker to your story with a URL to your website. If you want to add multiple URLs, use a Linktree to branch out to several websites and social media platforms. If you’re an influencer or someone who likes to connect with followers, engage them by adding polls, quizzes, “like” sliders or questions to your Story.