We all love making the most of Instagram’s relatively new feature, Instagram stories, where we can post short succinct versions of our lives, to share with our audience.
However, just because Instagram’s story feature is popular and entertaining, doesn't mean that it comes without its glitches from time to time. Sometimes, you are going to experience a blurry Instagram story, and this can be cause for frustration, especially if you have tried to upload a high quality Instagram story for a while.
If you don't like the idea of your Instagram stories being low quality, then let's talk about it. In this article, we are going to talk about why your Instagram stories might be blurry.
1. Instagram is the Problem
Before you start to adjust things on your phone, consider that the problem might not be you, but actually Instagram. Go to Twitter, and check Instagram’s official account, to see if they have made any announcements about any glitches.
You might also want to see if anybody else has complained about the same problem. If it's an issue with the Instagram server, then all you can do is be patient, and keep an eye out for any updated announcements.
2. Update Your Instagram App
If you can't find anything on the official Instagram page on Twitter, then it could be something to do with the fact that you haven't updated your Instagram app in a while.
It's always a good idea to check if there is a new version of the app available in the Apple App store, or the Google Play store. Updating your Instagram app to the latest version could fix this issue, because it could be caused by a bug that Instagram discovered.
3. You Haven’t Formatted the Image Correctly
You might not be aware of this, but Instagram stories has a default image format, that you have to follow. This means that if you haven't correctly cropped your image, then Instagram is going to crop it for you.
The result could be a pixelated image, or a stretched image. This means that you are much better off cropping the image yourself before you upload it. All Instagram story videos, as well as Instagram photos need to have a 9:16 aspect ratio.
When it comes to your phone, your image editing apps should have cropping templates, so that you can choose the right aspect ratio. You've got to make sure that this is in line with Instagram’s requirements, so that your Instagram stories don't come out blurry.
You've also got to think about the resolution of the image as well. If you have a low resolution on your image, then Instagram is going to automatically scale it up, which could lead to loss of quality.
4. If Your Insta Story is Upside Down, Upload it Upside Down
Another thing that you can encounter from time to time when uploading an Instagram story is that your content is going to be uploaded upside down. We aren't completely sure why this happens, but you can try to upload your images upside down, so that they are the right side up when they are officially uploaded.
5. Disable Your Data Saving Features
When you are using your phone to upload an Instagram story, and you are uploading a number of different videos at the same time, this can take a lot of your mobile data.
If you're using mobile data, then you might have a data limit in place. If you want to lower your bandwidth, then the Instagram app has an option where it will display a lower quality version of your video, which is going to obviously have less of an impact on your mobile data use.
So, if you are seeing blurry photos on your Instagram stories, you might want to switch to Wi-Fi, or turn off your mobile data saver option. To do this, go to your Instagram settings, and then account, and then find ‘data usage’. Select ‘use less mobile data’, and make sure that this is off.
6. Allow for High Quality Uploads
If you don't like the quality of your video uploads, then you can also change these settings on Instagram as well, so that your videos are better quality. Just make sure that you know that your video is going to take longer to upload, and process.
Go to your Instagram settings, and then find account. From here, you can find ‘data usage’, and then make sure that ‘high quality uploads’ is on.
7. Post the Image Through a Friend
Your photo or your video might be blurry, because the original content that you have saved on your phone was blurry to begin with. As a result, you could try sending the content to a friend, and have them let you know if the image still looks blurry on their end.
If it doesn't, then you can ask them if they are happy to upload it for you. You can even try posting your image to another platform, like Snapchat. If that image has been uploaded correctly on Snapchat, but not on Instagram, then the issue is with the Instagram app.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it, a number of reasons why your Instagram stories might be blurry. As you can see, some of the reasons are as a result of what you might be doing on your end, and then some of the reasons might be because of the Instagram app itself.
The first thing to do is to narrow down the possible scenarios, so you can work out exactly what's going on.
Either way, with the scenarios that we have talked about above, you should be able to figure out what's going on with your Instagram stories and solve the problem so that you are able to upload your Instagram stories without them being blurry. Good luck!