Instagram Reportedly Allowing Users To Share Videos Up To An Hour Long

Instagram was originally just for sharing square photos, but the app has expanded to live streaming, sharing Stories and posting videos. Now a new report claims that the Facebook-owned company is planning to launch a feature that will allow creators to publish videos up to an hour long.

Anonymous sources said that Instagram is preparing to launch a new feature that will include “long-form video.” The feature is said to allow users to post content of up to an hour in length and will primarily be used for vertical videos, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sources also said that Instagram has had conversations with content creators and publishers to start producing long-form videos for the app.

Currently, users are only allowed to post videos that are 60 seconds long. When Instagram first launched the ability to post videos in 2013, it only allowed 15-second videos. This video length limit was later increased to one minute in 2016. In 2017, Instagram allowed users to include multiple videos in a single post.

Instagram’s plan is said to be tentative and subject to change. However, extending the length of videos shared on the platform does go in line with Facebook’s current efforts in expanding its reach with video content.

If Instagram does decide to launch the new feature, it’s interesting that the company is putting more focus on vertical videos rather than horizontal. Perhaps this is due to Instagram Stories, which is a feature that the company copied directly from Snapchat. Instagram Stories have become so popular with over 300 million daily active users worldwide, as pointed out by The Verge.

Stories allowed users to share photos and videos, but only in the vertical orientation. It’s possible that Instagram believes that it’s long-form video feature could be as successful if it continues to stick to that type of video orientation. Currently, users are only able to share 15-second videos on Instagram Stories.

Extending the length of videos on Instagram also signals a new attempt from Facebook to get more money from advertisers. Facebook has already invested heavily in its new Watch section, but it looks like it hasn’t seen much success and some of its content partners have already abandoned the project, as pointed out by Gizmodo.

Bringing longer videos to Instagram might be Facebook’s solution in getting more creators and publishers onboard with creating new content. This would be an opportunity to start selling new video ads on Instagram, which currently has over 800 million monthly users worldwide.