Instagram Increases Reels Length To 3 Minutes, Changing To Long-Form Video Format

Instagram now allows Reels up to three minutes long, expanding from the current limit of 90 seconds.

Hyderabad:Instagram has confirmed to further increase the duration of Reels on the platform. "Starting today, you can upload Reels to Instagram that are up to three minutes long," Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video.

Allowing three-minute-long Reels pulls them out of the "short-video" category and makes them a vertical video platform, just like YouTube Shorts and TikTok. Notably, YouTube Shorts already allows users to post three-minute videos, whereas TikTok lets users upload 60-minute videos.

Mosseri also highlighted the change, confirming that so far they only allowed reels up to 90 seconds, given their focus on short-form video. However, they are now expanding the video duration after listening to the feedback that the earlier duration was "just too short" for those who want to share longer stories.

"Historically, it’s been only 90 seconds, and that’s because we wanted to focus Instagram on short-form videos and not long-form. But we have heard a lot of feedback from creators saying that 90 seconds is just too short," Mosseri said.

"We hope that increasing the limit to three minutes will help you tell the stories you really want to share," he added.

Vertical Profile Grids on Instagram

Instagram is also preparing to replace its iconic square profile grids with rectangular ones to better accommodate the pictures uploaded by users. Mosseri said that the change was made because most content uploaded to the platform is in a vertical orientation, which is cropped excessively by square grids.

While rectangular grids will make users worry-free about how Instagram crops their posts on the profile page, people who have been curating their grid based on the restriction could face some problems. Instagram, however, is allowing users to retain the square shape of their old posts to stop the supposed chaos.