Instagram is internally testing the ability to create Reels that are up to 10 minutes in length, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday. The social media giant says it is not testing the capability externally. The feature was first uncovered by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who shared screenshots of the internal prototype on X.
By increasing the time limit on Reels from three minutes to 10, Instagram would be aligning its short-form video product with TikTok, which expanded its maximum video length to 10 minutes back in February 2022. The change would also put Reels in competition with YouTube.
If officially rolled out, the expanded length would give creators more time and flexibility when filming things like cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational content, comedic sketches and more. Although creators have worked around the three-minute limit by encouraging viewers watch part two of a series, it can be hard to quickly find the correct video. The change would get rid of this problem and make it easier to watch content on the platform.
As Instagram and TikTok try to get a piece of the long-form content market, YouTube is looking to further embrace short-form video. Earlier this month, the company announced an expanded suite of creation tools for Shorts. Two weeks later, the company launched a new TikTok-style short-form personalized video feed called “Samples.”
Today’s news comes as Instagram has been rolling out a few different updates for its platform. Yesterday, the company revealed that it’s testing a new feature that lets creators share notable fan comments that they have received on posts and Reels to their Stories. Earlier this month, Instagram launched the ability for users to add music to their photo carousels as a way for them to show off their musical taste.