Anyone who regularly publishes a story on Instagram is probably familiar with the problem. If you then look at the story in profile, it looks slightly blurred or pixelated. These tips can help.
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide and is used extensively on smartphones, especially when out and about. However, a known problem is that Instagram stories often appear blurry when posted from an Android smartphone. Is it the network, hardware, app, certain settings or even Android itself? We have looked at potential sources of error and provide tips for quick remedies.
Screen capture degrades quality
The range of available smartphones with the Android operating system is far greater than Apple’s. All devices have different hardware and screen sizes. It is therefore problematic for Instagram to adapt its own app to almost all smartphones. The Facebook subsidiary therefore uses a “trick”: It does not use a “live photo” taken with the smartphone camera as the file source, but simply makes a screen capture.
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It is understandable that a loss of quality is to be expected during further processing. For Instagram users, this problem will probably remain an unsolvable dilemma in the long term, as the availability of Android devices with various hardware specs will remain high in the future.
Mobile data connection and image source
Mobile data tariffs are still comparatively expensive in Germany. That’s why many users limit mobile data consumption, which is particularly noticeable when loading photos and videos. Next to streaming and downloads, uploading images consumes the most mobile data volume. So if you frequently post high-resolution Instagram stories on the go, you should remove the limit in your smartphone’s settings and, if necessary, switch to a new tariff with a higher or even unlimited data volume. Corresponding tariffs are currently available from around 30 euros per month. However, these costs can be avoided by switching to WLAN. For example, if you often post Instagram stories on vacation, you will find free hotspots, especially in heavily frequented places.
The quality of the starting material also plays an important role. In addition to the data connection, the camera and its app are therefore a frequent reason for blurry photos. Several mistakes can even creep in here. Very often, for example, the image size is set too small, which in turn can be noticed on Instagram by a blurry photo after scaling. In addition, the quality may fluctuate when using poorly adapted third-party camera apps, among other things.
Both Android and iOS have various options for optimizing the quality of camera photos. It makes sense here to choose the best possible setting and, if possible, to always use the original camera app from the smartphone manufacturer, as it is optimally matched to the hardware.
Update Instagram and edit photos manually
The Instagram app itself is also a common source of errors. You should always check whether the latest version is already installed. If this is not automatically displayed in the Google Play Store, you can also search for new revisions there manually. For example, the error could also have been caused by an existing bug that Instagram fixed with an update. Sometimes it is also necessary to reset the app and clear the app storage. To do this, switch to the Apps area under Settings and select Instagram.
It is also possible that the initial quality of the photo in the file folder is already poor, in which case the only option left is to edit the image manually. There are various options here, on the one hand there are various image editing apps in the Google Play Store. With Snapseeds, Google even offers its own free app. Their functions should be sufficient for most users, which is why we can recommend them without reservation.
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You can also use professional image editing programs for notebooks and PCs. There are many different applications, which are also suitable for professional use. However, the following applies here: If you only post occasionally for private purposes on your Instagram account, you can save yourself such costs.
Consider Instagram limits
In order for users to save data volume and money, as already mentioned at the beginning, Instagram itself may also use the compression of photos or videos. In this case, the best smartphone camera is of little use if Instagram does not process correspondingly high resolutions at all. Ultimately, you have no influence on this, which is why only the already mentioned “readjustment” with image processing software can help. This makes it possible to “sharpen” the image despite the given size.
However, one should bear in mind that quality losses are generally unavoidable. A post-processed image with a lower resolution shows that it is no longer an original. However, the highest resolution specified by Instagram should also be sufficient for most applications and should not result in blurry photos.