Instagram Reels can now be up to one minute long, double the previous 30-second time limit. Instagram initially debuted Reels with a brief 15-second time cap, then quickly doubled it just a month later.
The Facebook-owned platform has already rolled out the update for the new feature.
Instagram announced the new feature via a meme posted on its official Twitter showing the progression of Reels, starting with no Reels and progressing to the new time limit.
The extension to the length of Reels can be attributed to the growing interest for videos among Instagram users. The new update also allows users to add captions sticker on Reels, which transcribes audio to text.
TikTok recently expanded its limit to three minutes for all creators, so it’s probably a matter of time before Instagram nudges its cap even further. Instagram has yet to share in detail how well Reels is doing, but Instagram’s leader, Adam Mosseri, said in January that “we have to be honest that TikTok is ahead.” For what it’s worth, I saw a ripped Instagram Reels video on TikTok for the first time recently, so that’s something.
Earlier, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, shared that he isn’t thrilled with the platform’s TikTok competitor Reels. He discussed the format, which launched in the US in August, during an interview, “I’m not yet happy with it,” he says. “We’re growing both in terms of how much people are sharing and how much people are consuming, but we have a long way to go. And we have to be honest that TikTok is ahead.”
“I think we have to get better at building more powerful and creative tools that aren’t necessarily a meme or a sort of moment in a package, but give people who are more creative than us and make content for a living the ability to make something that’s going to pop,” he says.
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Talking about the recent changes in the app, The Company said on Tuesday it was working on an "Instagram experience for tweens." It has said the idea of a youth-focused app is to provide parents greater transparency and controls on what younger children who want to access Instagram are doing.