Ok, on the surface this might seem confusing.
Today on their Instagram creator profile (IG), the Instagram team posted the following explanatory clip:
“But wait a minute,” you say. “Didn’t we just report a couple of weeks ago that posting 90-second Reels videos is bad for reach?”
Yes, we did, but these two actually coincide.
Here are some reasons why:
In the post’s caption, Instagram explained:
“Please note that while you can post videos to IG that are longer than 90 seconds, videos longer than 90 seconds will not be eligible for recommendations in the Explore or Reels tabs.. “
That’s why two weeks ago, at the Instagram Creators event, the Instagram team shared a slide that said posting Reels videos longer than 90 seconds could potentially hurt your distribution.
While Instagram didn’t explicitly say why in the event slides, the note above in today’s post explains why this would be detrimental to streaming, as long Reels are discouraged on the app.
This of course impacts your reach, so while you can do so and as IG points out, in some cases it may make more sense to post longer clips, you just won’t get the same exposure on the app.
Why don’t Reel videos longer than 90 seconds show up in the recommendations screen?
Presumably, this is because Instagram’s research shows that users only want short clips in these listings, so adding longer content would affect overall engagement.
That said, Instagram is also experimenting with longer Reels options, like three- and 10-minute clips, which don’t appear set to be fully released just yet. However, Instagram isn’t necessarily limiting itself to short Reels, it’s just not going to highlight them in its recommendations.
So, while it may seem contradictory, the logic is that you could post a longer clip, and while it might be valuable in certain situations, it wouldn’t have the same reach potential.
So you’ll probably only need to do so in very special cases.
