Instagram Says it Will Recommend Longer Reels in Explore

Hey, remember how Instagram told everyone that you shouldn’t post Reels longer than 90 seconds, as they don’t perform as well, then announced, a month later, that you could now post Reels up to 3 minutes long?

Confusing, huh? Well now, Instagram has sought to clarify this, by announcing that it will indeed be recommending longer Reels just the same as it does shorter ones in the app.

As you can see in these slides posted by IG, it will now recommend longer Reels in discovery surfaces, and ensure that longer clips get as much audience potential as other posts.

Because as noted, Instagram’s advice, up till now, has been:

Which is why the expansion of Reels, announced late last week, was a little weird.

But it’s all good, Instagram’s going to keep showing your longer clips to more people, so you can, and should post longer Reels in the app. If you want.

Though it still seems a little strange.

In May last year, at an Instagram creator event, Instagram’s team specifically noted that creators shouldn’t post longer Reels because people don’t like them, and they generally see far less engagement.

Which is why Instagram wasn’t recommending them in its discovery surfaces.

To clarify, up till last week, the maximum posting length for Reels created within the app was 90 seconds, but you could also upload longer clips captured via your camera roll. So while 3-minute Reels are new, you could actually post longer clips in the app previously.

Though Instagram repeatedly advised against it.

But now Instagram says that:

“Appetite around long-form content is changing, and we’ll continue to improve how reels are recommended on Instagram.”

I mean, TikTok enables users to post longer clips, so it makes sense that IG would also enable the same, as it looks to scoop up TikTok cast-offs due to its uncertainty in the U.S.

But it is a significant shift, seemingly for no other reason than Instagram wants to make it so.

Either way, you shouldn’t, theoretically at least, see any reach impacts if you do choose to post longer Reels in the app. Though whether users like the format is another question.

U.S. IG users can now post 3-minute Reels in the app.