The Optimal Instagram Story Dimensions [+ Tips for Best Quality]
New social media websites, new functions and algorithms continue to emerge, which are constantly updated. This makes it difficult to keep up with social media best practices.
However, social media is here to stay. According to InstagramMore than a billion active users are active every month and more than 500 million stories are active every day.
Indeed, Instagram stories are a popular trend that doesn’t go away. Pamela Bump, HubSpot audience growth writer, writes about Instagram Stories in this article Blog. She says: “Instagram Stories offers brands the opportunity to show their products, services or satisfied customers creatively in action. With Branded Instagram Stories, viewers can learn more about topics related to the industry of your brand. Helpful and valuable content can do the same enable.” potential buyers trust your brand more. “
With this knowledge, you want your marketing team to be ready to develop a strategy for you Instagram stories. To create this strategy, your team should decide what type of images or videos they want to publish. How do you want to take these pictures? With cell phones or professional cameras?
Below you will learn how important Instagram Story is and why it is important to add Instagram Stories to your strategy.
Instagram story dimensions
For the dimensions of Instagram stories, an image and video ratio of 9:16 and 16: 9 and 4: 5 is recommended. That means the recommended resolution is 1080 x 1920 pixels. The minimum width is 500 pixels and the maximum aspect ratio is 90 x 160. Instagram story videos are 15 seconds long.
How can I correct the quality of my Instagram stories?
You may be wondering why you need to know about specific Instagram stories Dimensions? There are cases when you may find that your stories are not uploaded with the desired quality. The following tips can help you narrow down the problem and improve the appearance of your brand values:
1. Before uploading, make sure your content is of high quality.
Instagram compresses images during the upload process so that an image that is already grainy or pixelated only gets worse when it reaches the platform.
Check that your pictures have a resolution of at least 72 ppi and are deleted on your computer before adding them to Instagram.
2. Upload the correct size and shape.
Instagram strictly adheres to its dimensions to ensure high quality photos and videos. If you upload a vertical image or video from your phone, you most likely don’t need to think about these dimensions as Instagram will automatically format them.
However, if you have horizontal photos that don’t fit the size, Instagram will crop, enlarge or reduce the content (which makes your picture look small and place it on a background). This usually results in lower quality images and videos.
3. Use photo editing apps.
Photo editing apps let you control the quality of your stories and make sure you always use the right dimensions. To edit your photos for Instagram, you can use the following websites:
With these tools, you can enter the specifications, upload images and videos, and complete the editing process. These work well if you want to take higher quality pictures with a camera or if you want to add graphics or text to your pictures or videos.
This would be the process for Canva. Click “Templates” and select “Instagram Story” to see templates with the correct dimensions for Instagram.
Image source: Canva
4. Check if the quality is better on other devices.
If your internet connection is bad, Instagram stories will be displayed at a lower quality than with a faster connection.
Instagram does this to save resources for the user experience when you interact with other areas of the website. Ask someone you know if the quality is bad in the end. You – and your audience – can easily view your stories.
5. Deactivate Data Saver.
Data Saver is a feature that prevents videos from being preloaded, which can reduce your data usage.
If your connection is OK, but you’re still having quality issues, this feature can affect the quality of your feed.
6. Test photos from different cameras.
As a last resort, test whether there is a quality difference between your phone’s built-in camera and Instagram camera. The photos you take with your phone’s camera compared to the in-app camera (or vice versa) can better survive Instagram’s compression settings.
Statistics and tips you should know about Instagram stories
Why should you care about Instagram stories? Here are a few statistics from Instagram::
- 90% of accounts follow business on Instagram
- Every month more than 1 billion Instagram accounts are active worldwide
- More than 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day
HubSpot blog author Sophia Bernazzani wrote about how to use Instagram Stories for businesses in this area Blog. She says you can use Instagram Stories to:
- Post footage of an office event
- Post the latest news about your industry
- Demonstrate your product
- Advertise a corporate event
- Preview a blog post from your company
- Mention other companies that follow or work with you
Using Instagram Stories is a tactic that all marketers should consider. With active and engaged users, using stories can improve your visibility and increase the reputation and brand awareness.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for completeness.