How to Change Background Color on an Instagram Story

Instagram hides its background tool inside the drawing pen. Once you know the press-and-hold trick, every color, gradient and photo layout is a few taps away, with no other app.

Updated 2026-10-03

How do you make a solid color story?

There are two ways, depending on whether you want a plain color or the preset styles Instagram offers.

For any color you choose:

1. Open the Story camera and take a photo of anything, or pick any image from your camera roll. It will be covered.

2. Tap the draw tool. In current versions it sits in the editor's tool menu, sometimes behind a three-dot or more icon.

3. Choose the regular pen, then a color from the palette at the bottom. Press and hold a color swatch to open the full color slider.

4. Press and hold anywhere on the image for two or three seconds. The screen fills with the color.

5. Tap Done, then add text, stickers or a link.

For a quick text Story, Create mode is faster. Swipe to Create (marked Aa) in the camera, and Instagram starts you on a colored background; tapping the color circle cycles through the preset options. Those presets can't be edited shade by shade, so use the pen fill when you need an exact color.

How do you change the background color behind a photo on a story?

You fill the screen, then bring the photo back. Two methods do this, and they suit different photos.

The eraser method keeps your photo full size. Fill the screen with the pen as above, then pick the eraser in the draw tool and rub over the area where the photo should show. Use the size slider on the side for a broad brush on large areas and a fine one for edges. It works well when you only want a colored border or a block of color behind text.

The sticker method keeps edges clean. Start with a fill, then open the sticker tray and use the photo sticker to place a picture from your camera roll on top of the color. You can resize and move it, and the background stays solid around it. Repeat the sticker and you have one of the ways to add multiple photos to an Instagram story.

If you shrink a photo with two fingers without doing either, Instagram fills the leftover space automatically, usually with colors picked from the photo itself.

How do you match a color with the eyedropper?

The eyedropper copies a color from anything already on the screen, which is how people match a background to a shirt, a logo or a sunset.

Open the draw tool, choose the pen, and tap the eyedropper icon at the left end of the color palette. A small circle appears on the image. Drag it over the spot whose color you want, then let go; the pen now carries that exact color. Press and hold on the screen to fill with it.

The order matters. Sample first, while the photo is still visible, and fill second. If you fill first, the only color left to sample is the fill itself.

Can you use a gradient background on Instagram stories?

Yes, from two places, though not a fully custom one.

Create mode starts with a gradient, and tapping its color circle cycles through Instagram's preset gradients and solid colors. You can't pick the two colors yourself; you pick from what Instagram offers.

Shared posts get a gradient too. When you add a feed post to your Story, Instagram places it on a two-tone background drawn from the post's colors, and a color icon at the top of the editor cycles through alternatives.

For anything else, such as a gradient in your brand colors, the honest answer is that the native editor doesn't build one. A pen fill gives you any solid color, and many accounts find a matched solid reads better on a phone screen than a gradient anyway.

Can you change the background of a shared post?

Yes, and there are three tools for it.

The color icon at the top of the editor cycles the gradient Instagram chose for the post. The pen fill covers the background with any solid color you pick, and the shared post stays on top because it sits above the drawing layer. And, as of October 2026, Instagram's Help Center describes AI backgrounds for reshared posts: tap Share under the post, tap Add to story, tap Background, try the options, tap Reload for new ones, then tap Done and post. AI features vary by region, so the Background option may not appear on every account.

The creator of the original post can turn off resharing to Stories, which is why the Add to story option is sometimes missing; what reposting does on Instagram explains how resharing and reposting differ.

Why is my story background black?

Usually because the black is part of what you uploaded. A screenshot, a video exported with black bars, or a photo taken in a dark room brings its own black edges, and Instagram treats them as part of the image, not as empty space it should fill.

Three fixes, from quickest to cleanest: pinch the image larger until the black edges leave the frame; fill the screen with a color and erase back to the part of the picture you want; or crop the black bars out in your phone's photo editor before adding the image to the Story.

If a pen fill comes out in the wrong color, the pen still had the last color selected. Pick the color first, then press and hold.

Does a background color change how many people see a Story?

No. Instagram distributes Stories to your followers through the Stories row, in the order it predicts they'll want, and the design of a single Story isn't what decides who opens it. Why your Instagram Story isn't getting views explains how that row is ordered and what actually moves Story reach.

Design does matter for what happens after someone opens it. A readable background behind text keeps people from tapping past, and a clean link sticker on a solid color gets more taps than one lost on a busy photo; how to add a link to an Instagram Story covers the sticker and how to track taps.

The view count is the number that shows how many people opened it. If that public count is what you want to raise for a launch or a campaign Story, Instagram story views adds to it from your public handle, with no login. Every Instagram service is listed on the Instagram page.

Questions people ask about Instagram Story backgrounds