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If audio is missing from your Instagram Stories, a fix is here

If audio is missing from your Instagram Stories, a fix is here

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The ringer switch has been doing a bit more than it’s supposed to

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Following the release of Apple’s iOS 15 update, some users have reported strange behavior on Instagram — when an iPhone’s ringer switch is set to silent mode, stories play without audio. A new update released on Friday appears to fix the problem.

Silent videos might sound like a blessing for friends who love to put every new song Spotify suggests to them in their Instagram Story, but that’s not exactly how the switch is supposed to work. Silent mode is primarily meant to control system sounds like ringtones and text tones, not the audio you hear inside apps.

Facebook is working on a fix

Before the update, I was able to recreate the behavior on my own iPhone running iOS 15. For some users, the issue popped up even earlier during the public beta of Apple’s software update. It’s not clear if this issue impacted users running older versions of iOS, and Facebook didn’t confirm if the issue was specifically related to iOS 15. The company did provide the following statement promising a fix, however:

We’re aware that some people are having trouble hearing their audio in Instagram Stories. We’re working to fix this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.

As of Friday, the update is available to download, and at least on my device, the problem is gone. Audio plays in Instagram Stories with the ringer off after a press of the volume button.

Update 9/24 12:48PM ET: Added information about Instagram’s update that fixes the issue.