Instagram testing 10-minute-long reels internally to compete with YouTube

Meta-owned Instagram is reportedly testing 10-minute-long Reels, which will enable users to film and share content related to education, skits, makeup tutorials, and even post cooking recipes with instructions. The social media platform is currently testing the feature internally and has not brought out a beta version yet. Until now, users who wanted to share long-form video content on the platform had to divide it into multiple parts.  

  

If Instagram decides to roll out the feature, the expanded time length will make it easier for both content creators and users to watch content. This might also result in increased engagement. It will also mean that Instagram will take on TikTok by increasing the Reel limit from 3 minutes to 10 minutes. TikTok did the same thing with Reels in February last year. 

 

Recently, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company was looking for ways to let creators engage better with their fans. In a post on the ‘IG updates’ channel, Mosseri said they were “testing the ability for public accounts to share comments from any public feed post or Reels to their stories.” 

 

In early August, Instagram added a bunch of new features to create and share on the platform such as adding music to carousels, collaborating with up to 3 friends on posts, and joining creators using the ‘Add Yours’ sticker.