If audio is missing from your Instagram Stories, here's a solution

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

Silent videos may seem like a blessing to friends who like to keep up with every new song Spotify suggests to them in their Instagram Story, but that's not exactly how the Switch works. Silent mode is primarily for controlling 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 iPhone running iOS 15. For some users, this problem had surfaced earlier during the public beta of software updates from Apple. It's not clear whether the issue affects users running earlier versions of iOS, and Facebook didn't confirm whether the problem was related to iOS 15 specifically. The company promised to correct the following statement, however:

We know that some people are having trouble hearing their audio in Instagram Stories. We are working to fix this problem as soon 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 when the ringer is turned off after pressing the volume button.