Instagram Reels Now Allowing Videos Up to 10 Minutes Long

Instagram Reels may soon let you upload content that’s longer than a minute. The Meta-owned platform is developing a longer version of Reels, a supposed short video feature, allowing users to upload videos of up to 10 minutes.

These plans have yet to be officially confirmed by Meta or Instagram, but based on developments, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a 10-minute Reels video in the near future.

Alessandro Paluzzi, who is a developer, has noticed the details of the feature. He managed to grab screenshots of the Reels app, where you have two side-by-side pages, one that records a 3-minute video and the other allows you to download a 10-minute video. “#Instagram aims to create #reels up to 10 minutes long,” he said.

It goes without saying that if Reels gains support for 10-minute videos, it will move away from competing with YouTube Shorts and heading in YouTube’s direction. TikTok will also be a competition of reels, as the platform owned by ByteDance already allows its users to download 10-minute videos for everyone, while those who pay for the platform will also be able to download 20-minute videos.

It’s interesting to see Reels considering longer video formats, especially since the market has gradually shifted to short videos for entertainment. But it’s likely that Instagram believes longer videos on Reels could help expand its business and bring in creators who can connect with their fan base and followers, but also engage with them in different ways. Supporting short videos is definitely lighter on systems, so Instagram has to update multitaskers to serve a new feature every time it’s released.

The platform is also looking for new ways to make all its features interactive. The products owned by Meta are going through their cross-integration, but even then it feels like Instagram has positioned itself as an app that can do everything and find takers for it.