Instagram has recently extended the maximum length of its Reels feature to three minutes, doubling the previous limit of 90 seconds, according to a recent announcement by Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram.

In a recent video posted from his verified account, Adam Mosseri said, "We've wanted to focus Instagram on short-form video, not on long-form video. But we've heard a lot of feedback from a lot of you creators out there that 90 seconds is just too short. So we're hoping that upping that limit up to three minutes will help you tell the stories that you really want to tell."

The timing of the change coincides with TikTok's ongoing challenges in the United States, where the platform faces a ban. TikTok, which introduced three-minute videos in 2021, has been a major competitor in the short-form video market.

Instagram has been cautious in extending the duration of reels since their introduction. While the platform has experimented with allowing videos up to 10 minutes long, it has refrained from making this option widely available, limiting longer content to standard video posts. 

While the 3-minute long reels option was welcomed by most users, many of them criticised Instagram's previous announcement to change the platform's profile grids orientation, which now displays content as rectangles instead of squares.

Acknowledging the difficulties regarding profile orientation for some users, in a separate video, Adam Mosseri said, "I think people will, over the long run, be excited that more of their photos and more of their videos are actually visible as intended in the profile as opposed to aggressively cropped."