Instagram has announced 3-minute Reels, meaning that it has increased the maximum duration of the Reels you can post on the platform from 90 seconds to 3 minutes. Apart from that, the platform announced other new features, such as Friends Activity for Reels to show which Reels your friends have liked, and more.
The 3-minute Reels and other announcements were made by Adam Mosseri on Instagram itself. He wrote in a post, “You can now upload reels up to three minutes long. We’ve historically only allowed reels up to 90 seconds given our focus on short-form video, but we’ve heard the feedback that this is just too short for those who want to share longer stories. Hope this helps.”
The 3-minute length for Instagram Reels matches that of YouTube shorts, who also increased the same from 60 seconds to 3 minutes last year in October. The announcement comes at a time when TikTok has been going through a crisis in the US where it was banned in the country but was then brought back online.
Aside from 3-minute Reels, Instagram announced two more features including:
- Discover what your friends and followers are into: We’re making it easier to see and engage with the content your friends are liking (or adding a note to) on reels at the top right corner of the Reels tab.Â
- Start conversations: You’ll also see a reply bar, so you can easily start conversations around content you’re enjoying, giving you even more opportunities for your reels to be seen by people who don’t follow you yet.
The first one is similar to what the Activity Tab looked like from back in the day where you could see all the posts your followers were liking. All the new features aren’t live yet on the platform outside US, but should expand to more regions soon.
Meanwhile, back in December, Instagram Night mode on Android was also announced. Instagram Night Mode is currently available to users with any Pixel device from the Pixel 6 series and up, a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, or a Samsung Z Flip 6 or Z Fold 6, with more devices to follow soon.