Instagram officially extends reel length to 3 minutes

Whether TikTok gets banned in the US or not, Instagram is certainly making a flurry of moves that seem consistent with trying to present itself as the best alternative for users.

Today, Instagram has officially announced that users can now create 3-minute reels in the app, giving you some extra time for your short-form masterpieces.

As explained by Instagram boss Adam Mosseri:

“Starting today, you can upload Reels to Instagram in up to three minutes. Now, historically, only 90 seconds have passed, and that’s because we wanted to focus Instagram on short-form video, not on long-form video. But we’ve heard a lot of feedback from many of you creators out there that 90 seconds is just too short, so we hope that raising the limit up to three minutes will help you tell the stories you really want to tell. “

But wait, didn’t Instagram tell us just a few months ago that videos longer than 90 seconds are negative for content performance?

Yes, yes it did:

In fact, Instagram has repeatedly instructed creators that posting longer scrolls is a bad idea, including this tip it shared earlier this month:

So, I guess you can post longer scrolls if you want, but based on Instagram’s repeated advice, you probably shouldn’t?

In any case, Instagram has been experimenting with longer reels for some time, with 10-minute reels even being tested with some users.

So it is not a new concept, while it could also better adapt Reels with TikTok, which allows users to post longer videos in-stream. YouTube also officially extended the length of Shorts to three minutes earlier this month, after announcing it last year, and in this sense Instagram is really just looking to move in line with the competition and enable more creative options for its users.

But I don’t know if you should do it.

It all comes down to the content itself, and your audience, and perhaps there are more options in longer clips than Instagram has previously seen.

But the current advice from IG is that you shouldn’t post Reels longer than 90 seconds.

But now you can. If you want.