Instagram may soon let you post 10-minute-long Reels

Meta-owned Instagram is reportedly working on a longer version of Reels, which will let users record up to 10 minutes of videos. Mobile developer and leaker Alessandro Paluzzi shared the development on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, sharing screenshots of two side-by-side Reels pages, one to record for three minutes and another to record for 10 minutes, reports The Verge. By increasing Reels’ length to 10 minutes, it moves closer to YouTube videos, but not as far as short-term video rival TikTok, which already offers more time to record videos. TikTok offers up to 10 minutes of longer video content for free users with an additional paid tier for up to 20 minutes, allowing fans to watch more content from their favourite creators.

“#Instagram is working on the ability to create #Reels up to 10 minutes long,” he said. However, Meta has not confirmed plans to extend Reels yet, the report said.

Meanwhile, Instagram is testing a new group mention feature that will allow users to tag more than one person in a story using a single mention. In a post on his broadcast channel, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said: “We’re testing a way to tag a group of people in a story using a single mention. Once you create a group mention, it can be reused by anyone in the group to automatically tag everyone in any new stories”. This feature will be helpful, as tagging multiple people in one mention will make stories cleaner and less cluttered, providing a better viewing experience for followers.

The Meta-owned photo- and video-sharing app is also making the platform better for creators. It is working on a feature that will allow creators to highlight their favourite comments from fans in Stories. Instagram head Adam Mosseri via a post on the ‘IG updates’ channel said that the company wants to make it easier for creators to highlight interesting comments. “We’re testing the ability for public accounts to share comments from any public feed post or Reels to their stories. The idea is to help creators highlight important or interesting comments from fellow creators or fans,” he said.

— Written with inputs from IANS