It looks like Instagram is about to dramatically increase the length limit for Reels posts, according to mobile developer and popular leaker Alessandro Paluzzi.
The current limit for these videos is three minutes, but screenshots provided by Paluzzi indicate an upcoming jump in trailer length to 10 minutes. This would effectively turn the social networking site into a more powerful video sharing platform like YouTube.
The move would also allow Meta's Instagram to step up the competition with TikTok, as the latter already allows users to post videos of up to ten minutes. TikTok and Instagram seem to go hand in hand in feature rollout, with one app regularly adopting features previously revealed by the other.
And while Instagram and TikTok are vying for a share of the long-form video pie, YouTube is moving in the opposite direction, making significant efforts to make more inroads into the short video space, and most recently adding a suite of creator tools and a TikTok-style music discovery feed.
NGadget has reached out to Meta for clarification regarding the move towards longer-form video content. The company confirmed that the leaked images are real, but represent an internal prototype that is not being tested externally at the present time.