Instagram rolled this out a while back, and it still catches people off guard because there’s no obvious color icon to tap. The trick is pressing and holding the note itself.
The Steps
- Open Instagram and tap the DM icon (paper plane) at the top right of your screen.
- At the top of your inbox, tap Your note (sometimes labeled Share a note).
- Type your message, or leave it blank if you just want a colored bubble with an emoji.
- Press and hold directly on the text bubble — not the empty space around it. A small color bar will pop up.
- Swipe through the colors and tap the one you want. The bubble updates instantly so you can preview it before posting.
- Tap Share.
Text color isn’t something you set separately. It shifts automatically based on the background you pick, usually flipping between black and white for contrast. There’s no manual override for that part.
If You Don’t See the Color Option
- Update Instagram from the Play Store or App Store — this only works on recent app versions.
- Close and fully reopen the app after updating. The option sometimes doesn’t appear until you restart.
- On Android, clear the app cache (Settings > Apps > Instagram > Storage > Clear Cache). On iOS there’s no cache option, so offloading and reinstalling the app does the same thing.
- Log out and back into your account to force Instagram to refresh which features are active for you.
- Give it a few days if none of that works. Instagram rolls features out in batches, and not every account gets access at once even on the latest app version.
Gold or themed bubble colors (the ones that show up around holidays or special events) aren’t something you can pick manually — those get assigned automatically and aren’t part of the regular color bar.
Also worth knowing: the color options aren’t identical across every account. Some people get more shades than others, and Instagram hasn’t published a fixed palette — so if your choices look different from a friend’s, that’s normal, not a glitch.