How to Center or Reposition Your Instagram Bio

Your bio is an essential element of your profile on Instagram. Although it is limited to 150 characters, it is one of the three things that other Instagram users have to look at to gauge whether they want to follow you or not. Of course, the other two things are your username and your most recent selection of posts and stories.

One common technique used to increase the visual appeal of your bio and make it “pop” is to center or reposition the bio text. Centering/repositioning the text means inserting spaces on each line so that the overall effect is to make your bio look centered, indented, or stylish on the screen when someone looks at it.

Word-processing programs like Microsoft Word include automatic centering features that let you select a block of text and hit a button, and poof, it is instantly centered. Instagram, unfortunately, does not have this functionality. However, centering your bio is quite simple, and in this article, you’ll see a simple technique to get your bio displaying where you want it.

Instagram Bio Character Limit

While you’re typing your bio on an iPhone or Android device, one handy feature is the character count that displays in the lower right-hand corner of the text box. The count shows you how many characters are left in your allowance of 150.

The PC version does not appear to include a character count feature.

Spaces count against the character limit, including nonbonding spaces—more on that later.

Yes, the spaces used to format your text count against the 150-character limit.

Use Nonbinding Spaces to Position or Center Your Bio

In the Instagram Bio text box, you’ll want to add spaces to the left-hand side of each row of text that you want to center or position differently. If your text strings are relatively short, adding about nine spaces to the left of each row will put your text near the center of the screen on most phones. You’ll want to add more or less space depending on if your text strings are longer or shorter. You’re going to run into one problem, though. Instagram insists on left-justifying every line in your bio. That means that each line starts with the first visible character, not spaces.

The only way to get your Instagram Bio lines to the center or appear where you want them to is to use nonbinding spaces. There’s no need to go into technicalities, but these gaps are essentially coded differently in HTML and will let you bypass the line glitch in Instagram’s code.

Nonbinding spaces prevent whitespace and two-part text such as “liquid-based” and “T & T Disks,” for example, from separating into the current row and next row, yet they serve as spacers in this particular case.

Nonbinding spaces used for copy/paste functionality in your Instagram Bio are not creatable in a text app, note-taker, or document creator. Sure, MS Word and Google Docs have a way to insert nonbinding/nonbreaking spaces, but it won’t work for your Bio unless you copy it from HTML, which uses “ ” (excluding the quotes) as the code. Don’t bother viewing source code or using the “Inspect element” to see the “ ” characters. They often appear as blank spaces, ironically.

Anyways, editing your Instagram Bio is simple. Using a PC is best so you can easily copy/paste the nonbreaking spaces. Still, it is also possible on Android and iPhone because we incorporated the nonbreaking spaces in the steps below, so your smartphone or tablet can easily copy them as well. Regardless, with a couple of clicks or taps, you can position your bio any way you want, including centering it. Here’s how.

Center/Position Your Instagram Bio in Windows

1. Open your browser and head to the Instagram Login page. If you’re already logged in, the website will go directly to your account. Otherwise, enter you login credentials.
   
2. Click on your “Profile” icon in the top-right section of the page.
3. Select “Profile” fron the list.
4. Click on “Edit Profile.”
5. Copy the spaces only on this line (as many as you need) that are in between the following brackets: [⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]
6. In the “Bio” box, paste the copied nonbinding/nonbreaking spaces into your Bio, then type what you want to appear.
7. Scroll down the page and click on “Submit.”
8. Head to your Instagram Profile page to view the results. It may take several tries to get the look you desire.

Center/Reposition Your Instagram Bio in Android and iOS/iPhone

1. Launch the Android Instragram App or iOS Instagram app.
   
2. Tap on your “Profile” icon in the bottom-right section.
   
3. Tap on “Edit Profile.”
   
4. Tap on the “Bio” section.
   
5. The Bio edit screen appears.
   
6. Copy the spaces only on this line (as many as you need) that are in between the following brackets: [⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]
   
7. Edit your Bio by pasting the nonbinding spaces before your text so that it centers or repositions it on the line. Tap the “blue checkmark” in the upper-right section to save your changes.
   
8. Now, your Instagram Profile Bio rows should appear in the new positions.
   

Other Types of Instagram Bio Effects

Centering isn’t the only type of text formatting that can give your bio some visual flair. For example, you can stagger your bio by increasing the indent on each successive line. For example:

Good Example: 

Bad Example: 

Notice that the second example tiered less fluidly because the last line was too short. Also, it doesn’t highlight the contact information in the same way that a centered bio would.

Think about what you want your followers and potential followers to take away from your bio, how your bio reads, and what information you’d like to highlight.

When Not to Center a Bio

Sometimes, your profile is better served by not having a centered bio, which comes with downsides, including:

• Lack of space for characters. Bios have a 150 character limit and spaces count toward that limit.
• Poor desktop view. Centered bios do not come across as effectively on desktop. Of course, most people will be checking Instagram on their phones.
• Centered bios break up the text. If your bio is comprised of short statements, this might not matter for you. It can also be helpful for highlighting disparate elements like email addresses. However, if you interrupt the flow of your bio, forcing it onto separate lines, it might look awkward and be hard to read.

Overall, centering or staggering your bio on Instagram can definitely help make your profile stand out in the crowd. Whether you’re looking to help show off your contact information or want to make your bio look more attractive, centering and staggering text on Instagram is surprisingly easy.