Instagram app playing audio when muted? You aren’t alone

Look, we all use Instagram when we probably shouldn’t. We open the app and scroll through the feed or tap through Stories spontaneously — even when we’re around other people and need to do so silently. That used to not be a problem — on the iPhone, just keep the mute switch flipped down and Instagram stays silent. Except, it doesn’t anymore.

No, it’s not just you: Instagram won’t stay silent anymore, even if you have your mute switch on. Infuriatingly, if you mute your phone while in the Instagram app it’ll stop the sound for a bit, but the next Story you load or video you scroll past will go right back to blaring sound. And y’know, a lot of the audio on Instagram isn’t particularly subtle (thanks, TikTok).

Alright, so how can you fix it permanently? Well, here’s the problem … you can’t. At least, we haven’t been able to figure it out. Trying all of the usual steps like uninstalling and reinstalling the app, logging out and back in, or restarting your phone, only fixes it temporarily.

The only way to keep Instagram from playing sound for now is to manually lower your phone’s system volume. To do that, just pull down your Control Center with a swipe from the top-right corner of your screen, and slide the volume slider to the bottom so it shows a speaker with a line through it. Alternatively, you can use the volume down button on the side of your phone to do the same — so long as you don’t have your phone set to change its ringtone volume with the volume buttons instead.

Chances are, we’re going to just have to impatiently wait for Instagram to address the problem. Considering that this bug showed up seemingly without an Instagram app update, there’s good chance the company will be able to fix the problem on the server side — rather than pushing out an app update. Whatever they need to do, I hope they do it soon — I need to get back to watching Reels while acting like I’m paying attention to something else.

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