The short version: you change an Instagram Story background colour by uploading a photo and using the colour picker tool, by tapping the paint bucket on a text-only story, by adding a coloured sticker or shape layer, or by using the background remover to swap a plain colour behind your subject. There is no single “background colour” button in the app. It depends entirely on what you’re starting with, a blank story, a photo, or a video.
I get asked this at least once a week by clients who’ve just watched a tutorial that showed a clean, obvious button that isn’t there anymore. Instagram moves this stuff around every few months, hides it in different taps, and nobody updates the old blog posts. So here’s what works right now, method by method, plus what I’ve learned from three years of posting Stories almost daily for my own business.
The four real ways to change your Story background colour
There isn’t one universal setting. Instagram treats a blank canvas story, a photo story, and a text-only story completely differently. Pick the method that matches what you’re starting with.
1. Starting from a blank screen (no photo)
- Open the Camera in Stories and swipe to the “Create” mode at the bottom (it sits between Boomerang and the regular camera options).
- Tap the screen once and it defaults to a solid colour background.
- Tap the small circle colour picker in the top left corner and drag your finger across the gradient bar to cycle through colours.
- You can also long-press anywhere on that colour bar to get a colour wheel with finer control, useful if you want to match a specific brand colour rather than whatever Instagram gives you.
This is the fastest route if you’re doing a text quote, an announcement, or a poll sticker on its own. No photo needed at all.
2. Starting from a photo you’ve already taken
Once you’ve got an actual image in the frame, the background colour picker disappears because there’s nothing “blank” left to colour. Your options here are:
- Crop or zoom so the photo fills less of the frame, then add a coloured background behind it using a sticker or a solid colour box drawn with the pen tool set to “fill” (hold your finger down on the canvas with the pen tool selected and it fills the whole background in your chosen colour, sitting behind the photo).
- Use the background remover built into the sticker tray. Tap the sticker icon, search “cutout,” and Instagram will auto-detect you or your subject and let you place that cutout onto a fresh coloured background you’ve drawn first.
- Draw a large coloured rectangle with the pen tool and layer your photo (resized smaller) on top of it, giving you a framed effect with visible colour around the edges.
If you’re not sure your photo is even the right shape for this in the first place, it’s worth checking the correct size and dimensions for Instagram Stories before you start layering colours on, because a photo that’s the wrong aspect ratio will leave odd gaps that no colour trick fixes cleanly.
3. Text-only stories
Tap the text tool, write your words, then tap the colour circle at the top. Most people only realise this changes the text colour, not the background. To change the background behind the text, tap the “Aa” style selector at the top instead and cycle through the text styles, several of them (the ones with a solid block behind the letters) let you then tap the colour circle to change that block colour, effectively giving you a coloured background strip behind your words rather than the whole screen.
4. Using stickers, GIFs or the shapes in the pen tool
Draw a coloured shape large enough to cover the whole story, send it to the back using the layer options, and everything else sits on top. This is the method I use most for client work because it gives full control, you’re not limited to Instagram’s preset gradient bar and you can match an exact hex code if you screenshot your brand colour first and use it as a size reference.
A real example from a client shoot
Last spring I was helping a beauty brand in Brighton rebuild their Stories after a rough patch of low reach. Their founder had been posting product shots on plain white backgrounds for months, technically fine, completely forgettable. We tested one simple change: swapping the plain white behind product close-ups for the brand’s signature blush pink, done manually with the pen tool fill method above, no app, no filter, just colour matching.
Story completion rate (the percentage of people who watch to the end rather than tapping away) went from around 61% to 74% over a two week test, purely from that one visual change. Nothing else moved. Same captions, same posting time, same product. Colour consistency did the work. It sounds almost too simple to be a real result, but Stories are consumed in under three seconds each, and a recognisable colour does more heavy lifting in that window than most people give it credit for.
The uncomfortable bit nobody tells you
Here’s what most tutorials skip because it’s less satisfying than “tap this button”: changing your background colour will not fix a boring Story. I’ve watched dozens of small business owners spend twenty minutes perfecting a gradient behind a message that had nothing worth saying. Colour is a finishing touch, not a rescue plan. If your Story is a blurry photo with no point to it, a nice teal background just makes it a nice-looking blurry photo with no point to it. Get the content right first, the colour second. That order matters more than the app functionality does, and it’s the bit that moves the needle, not the shade you pick.
Matching your brand colours
If you run a business account, resist the urge to use whatever colour Instagram’s default bar shows you. Screenshot your logo, use a free colour picker app to grab the exact hex code, then use that as your reference when dragging Instagram’s gradient bar or drawing with the pen tool, matching visually as close as you can get. It won’t be pixel-perfect (Instagram doesn’t let you type in a hex value directly, which is annoying and has been requested by users for years without change) but close consistent colour across every Story builds recognition faster than most people expect. Customers start recognising your Stories before they even read the text, purely from colour and layout repetition.
If you want ideas for backgrounds that go beyond flat colour, things like textures, patterns, subtle branded templates, it’s worth reading through how to create engaging backgrounds for Instagram Stories, which covers the design side rather than just the technical taps.
Video backgrounds and colour
Video Stories work differently again. You can’t fill a video background with flat colour the way you can a photo, because the camera has already captured whatever was behind you. Your realistic options are:
- Filming in front of an actual coloured wall or backdrop (cheapest, most reliable, what I do for most talking-head Stories).
- Using the green screen effect in the Create camera mode, which lets you swap the background for a solid colour or an image, though it needs decent lighting and a plain background to detect your outline cleanly.
- Editing in a separate app before uploading, which gives more control but adds a step most people skip because Stories are meant to be quick.
Tools that make this faster
The native Instagram tools cover most needs, but if you’re producing Stories daily for a business, dedicated apps save real time on the fiddly bits, precise colour matching, batch templates, consistent fonts. I’ve listed the ones worth trying in 101 Instagram tools and apps, several of which have dedicated Story background and template features built specifically for this.
If you’re experimenting with AI generated backgrounds rather than flat colour, whether that’s a stylised pattern, an anime-style edit, or a photo-realistic scene, the process for prompting and editing those is covered in how to use an AI generator to create anime style artwork and in how to use ChatGPT to create trending photo edits for Instagram, both useful if flat colour starts feeling stale and you want texture without hiring a designer.
Why this matters more for shopping and product Stories
If you sell physical products through Instagram, background colour isn’t decoration, it’s product photography basics applied to a nine second format. A clean, consistent coloured background makes products look intentional rather than snapped on the fly on a cluttered desk. This ties directly into the wider Instagram Shopping setup, and it’s worth reading the guide to Instagram Shopping and its 7 best practices if Stories are part of a sales funnel rather than just brand presence, because the visual consistency you build with background colour carries straight through to how trustworthy your shop tab looks.
A quick troubleshooting list
- Colour picker missing entirely: you’ve already got a photo or video in frame, switch to the pen tool fill method instead.
- Colour looks washed out after posting: Instagram compresses Stories, slightly muted colours are normal, test with a saturated version if brand accuracy matters.
- Can’t get an exact brand hex: there’s currently no manual hex input in Stories, screenshot and match by eye or use a third party design app before uploading.
- Background remover not detecting your subject: needs decent contrast between you and what’s behind you, plain walls work far better than busy rooms.
Frequently asked questions
Can you type in an exact hex code for an Instagram Story background?
No, not natively. Instagram’s built in colour picker uses a gradient bar and colour wheel, not a hex input field. To match an exact brand colour you’ll need to eyeball it against a screenshot of your logo, or design the background in a separate app and upload it as an image.
Why doesn’t the colour picker show up when I have a photo in my Story?
The colour picker only works on a blank canvas. Once a photo or video fills the frame, there’s no empty background left to colour, so you switch to drawing a filled shape with the pen tool, or using the cutout sticker to place your subject on a fresh coloured layer.
Does background colour affect how many people watch my Story?
It can, but only as a supporting factor, not a fix. In one test I ran with a client, switching a plain white background to a consistent brand colour raised Story completion rate from around 61% to 74% over two weeks. The content stayed the same. Colour consistency helped, but it won’t rescue a Story with nothing worth watching in the first place.
What’s the fastest way to change background colour without a photo?
Open the Camera, swipe to Create mode, tap the blank screen, then drag your finger across the colour bar in the top left to cycle colours instantly, or long press it for a full colour wheel. It takes about five seconds and needs no photo or editing app at all.
For the bigger picture, see my full guide to social media marketing.
Primary sources
Related reading: How Do You Come Up With New Ideas For Instagram Stories? (My Actual Method) and What Work From Home Jobs Are Available Without a Nursing Background.
