How to Upload High-Quality Photos & Videos on Instagram Despite Reduced Video Quality

Have you ever noticed that videos on your phone look more alive than when shared on Instagram? Whether it’s photos, videos or a trendy reel format, users are globally interacting with the platform’s dynamic features.

Nevertheless, Instagram optimizes the quality of photos and videos based on the capabilities of your mobile network to provide a smooth and responsive experience on your phone. This compression is applied evenly, even to high-quality content, with the goal of saving space on both Instagram’s servers and your mobile device. The primary goal is to improve the download speeds of images and videos in the application, which ensures a fast and efficient user experience.

Surprisingly, there is a little-known feature that allows users to break free from these restrictions and upload HD photos and videos to Instagram.

Follow these simple steps to unlock high quality uploads on Instagram:

Step 1: Open the Instagram app on your smartphone and log in with your credentials.

Step 2: Tap on the three horizontal lines located at the top right corner of the screen.

Step 3: Select Settings and Privacy and then find Media Quality.

Step 4: Under Media Quality, enable the “Upload at highest quality” option.

Step 5: Close the Instagram app and launch it again to apply the changes.

iPhone users also have an additional option called “Use less mobile data” for those who are conscious of their data usage.

From now on, every photo, video or story you share will present a significantly higher quality. However, be prepared for a possibly faster data consumption speed. The decision to enable or disable premium downloads is entirely up to you. Feel free to try the feature, compare images and see if anyone notices an improvement in the quality of your content. Please note that download times may vary depending on your internet speed. Follow Instagram’s upload requirements for optimal results with your photos and videos.

If you find that this feature does not significantly improve your user experience, it is recommended to keep it off. By doing this, you can not only keep your data usage at a reasonable level, but also avoid unnecessary consumption of resources without compromising the quality of your Instagram uploads. This allows you to customize your Instagram settings according to your preferences and usage patterns.

Additionally, these settings have an option to “Disable HDR video playback”, a feature that may be useful for some users. Enabling this option might be especially useful for people who are bothered by Instagram videos, which tend to increase the brightness of the screen. This customization allows users to fine-tune their Instagram experience to their liking.