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Your Instagram posts on Android are finally getting the glow up they deserve
- Google says Android 17 will bring a better Instagram experience to high-end Android devices.
- Instagram on Android will feature Ultra HDR, built-in stabilization, Night Sight integrations, and an optimized capture-to-upload pipeline.
- Instagram’s Edits app is getting Android-exclusive AI tools, including Smart Enhance and sound separation.
Flagship Android phones might have mind-bogglingly good cameras, but the fact remains that social apps haven’t always shown them at their best. Google is determined to offer its best to a social media generation, and says it has worked with Meta to bring a better Instagram experience to high-end Android devices.
Announced at Google I/O today and detailed in a Google blog post, the company frames the update as part of a wider creator-focused push for Android 17. It has teamed up with Meta to improve Instagram on its most advanced Android devices, including offering Ultra HDR capture and playback, built-in video stabilization, and Night Sight integrations.
Google also says it has “completely optimized” the capture-to-upload pipeline for Instagram. As a result, the company claims recent side-by-side tests using the Universal Video Quality model found that video captured and uploaded to Instagram from Android flagship devices scored the same or better than the “leading competitor.” You can take a pretty good guess at who that competitor might be.
There’s more on the editing side, with the Instagram Edits app getting Android-exclusive tools powered by on-device AI. Smart Enhance will let you upscale photos and videos with a tap, while sound separation will be able to identify different audio tracks, such as wind and music, so you can boost the bits you want and remove the bits you don’t.
Google also announced Screen Reactions, a new Android feature that lets you record your screen and camera feed simultaneously for reaction videos without a separate app or green-screen setup. That feature will roll out first on Pixel devices this summer.
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The broader pitch from Google is that Android is becoming a better platform for creators and social media users — not just another device where social apps happen to run. Instagram is the leading platform for this push, but the company has made clear that other social apps will be able to access the same features if they want them.
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