Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge
Instagram will now let you upload Reels that are up to 3 minutes long, doubling the 90-second limit the platform had in place before, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced today.
He credits today’s change to users’ feedback saying that the 90 seconds “is just too short.” That’s a big turnaround for Mosseri, who said in July last year that the platform wouldn’t pursue longform videos because it could compromise the platform’s “core identity to connect people with friends.”
It also comes as TikTok, which started allowing 3-minute videos in 2021, is gearing up to go dark on Sunday in response to an imminent US ban.
Instagram has been slow to bump the length of Reels — it’s been more than two years since it started allowing minute-and-a-half videos. The company has tested extending the limit to as much as 10 minutes but has held off on rolling that out, leaving the ability to post long videos to non-Reels posts.
