How to Change the Background Color of an Instagram Story
June 11, 2025
By
Hugh Stephens
Do you want to change the background in your Instagram Stories but aren’t sure how to do it, exactly?
A consistent aesthetic isn’t just a design preference, it’s a big part of your brand identity. On social media, first impressions happen fast, so your Instagram Stories need to look and feel on-brand every time.
Changing the background color of your Instagram Story is a simple way to show off your brand colors, boost recognition, and keep your content looking consistent across all your social media channels. Whether you're reposting user content, announcing a product drop, or sharing behind-the-scenes Reels, your Stories should be on-brand, every time.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the background color of your Instagram Story, add media and brand-aligned imagery, and even customize templates, all with tools that are already built into the Instagram app.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to change the color palette of your Stories.
How Brands Can Get Creative With Instagram Stories
If you’re a brand active on social media, chances are you’re using your IG Story to keep your audience engaged, informed, and (hopefully) inspired. But without a clear visual style, it’s easy for your content to get lost, especially in fast formats like Stories.
Instagram offers a series of features that help you take your Stories to the next level with ease. Changing your background to your desired color or even a gradient color is an easy way to align with your brand’s aesthetic, keep your content recognizable, and make reposts feel intentional rather than recycled.
Instagram Stickers are simple graphic design overlay elements that let you add personality, functionality, and branding to your Instagram Story content
Think of them as mini engagement tools. You can use stickers to tag collaborators, run a poll, host a Q&A, add music, or include a clickable link sticker to drive traffic to your site. Some are static, others are animated gifs, and many (like quizzes, countdowns, or emoji sliders) offer creative ways to get your audience actively participating with your brand in real time.
From a social media marketing perspective, Instagram Stickers are a simple way to increase engagement and help you connect with followers.
Collage
Another way to stay creative on Instagram is to share a video collage on your Stories . Instagram collages became popular when influencers started sharing a series of photos all in a single Story.
Stories with collage looked incredibly creative and many users wanted to follow the trend. In response to this demand, Instagram introduced an easy way to create a collage through its Layout feature. All you have to do is add two or more photos to your Story and adjust them accordingly.
You can also create a collage on your own by playing around with the background and the way you want to display the photos. You can find out more about Instagram collage here.
How to Change the Background on Your Instagram Story
There are three main ways to change background color when you post a new story, depending on the type of background you want to add.
Changing the default color to a different solid background or gradient background
Changing to a background image that you’ve already downloaded on your phone
Changing the background color and adding an image along with it
Changing to a Different Solid Colour
When you’re sharing an Instagram story, the Instagram app will automatically choose a default color for you based on the content. But you’re not stuck with it.
You can easily change the background color to a solid background that better suits your brand’s color palette.
Here are the instructions you need to follow.
Open Instagram and post a new story.
Take or upload your photo or video, or tap to create a blank canvas.
Tap the drawing tool (the pen icon at the top of the screen)
Select your desired color from the color options at the bottom of the screen
Long press on the screen until the entire screen fills with your selected color
TIP: If you’re using a long press for an entire screen color, the photo you initially added to the Story is no longer there. As a result, you must treat the Story with the new background as a blank canvas to add text.
Want to use an exact brand color instead? Use the eyedropper tool to sample tones directly from your logo or post content for a perfectly matched result.
Upload a Custom Background Image from Your Camera Roll
Sometimes you want more than a flat color, especially if you're sharing a campaign announcement, a quote, or a promo code. That’s where custom background images come in handy.
To do this:
Start a new story in the Instagram app
Swipe up to access your camera roll
Choose a saved image - this could be a branded graphic, a product screenshot, or a pre-designed background.
Add stickers, GIFs, or text as needed
TIP: Your new backgrounds don’t have to come from free stock sites. You can create your own backgrounds with your design team to reflect your branding and make your stories immediately recognizable as coming from your brand.
Collaborate effortlessly, save time and spend less
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Collaborate effortlessly, save time and spend less
Why settle for a lackluster social media management tool when you could be using Sked Social? With unlimited collaborator access, streamlined approvals and advanced auto-post technology that lets you schedule to all major platforms, Sked Social offers everything you need.
Changing the Background Color and Adding an Image to It
Your third option is to change the background color but also add an image on top of it.
(A quick note: This option works in practically the same way as creating an Instagram collage.)
Here’s how it works:
Tap the drawing tool
Select a solid color
Long press the screen until the entire screen fills with that color
Exit Instagram and go to your camera roll
Tap ‘Copy Photo’ on the image you want to use
Go back to the Instagram app — a popup should appear at the bottom left to paste the image into your story
Missed the popup? Just open the text tool and paste manually
Takeaway Tips on Changing your Instagram Story Background
Although it may seem like an insignificant feature, changing the Instagram Story background offers you new ways to make your stories pop.
Even a simple change of color can make your Stories more appealing to the audience. And, naturally, the engagement will go up even higher when you start creating custom backgrounds.
You can even be more creative by adding animated backgrounds to your next Instagram Stories.
Isn’t that amazing?
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