Instagram Reels Video Length Limit Expanded to 60 Seconds, New Teenage Users Defaulted to Private Accounts

Instagram’s Reels gets a new 60-second video length option added alongside the original 15 and 30 second options.

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 28 July 2021 12:03 IST

Highlights

Instagram will offer teenagers the option to switch to public account
Instagram Reels rival TikTok recently expanded video length to 3 minutes
Instagram will try to limit options for advertisers to target teenagers

Instagram Reels Video Length Limit Expanded to 60 Seconds, New Teenage Users Defaulted to Private Accounts

Instagram will send push notifications to public teenage accounts to make them private

Instagram Reels video length has been increased to 60 seconds, the company has announced. Before this, users could choose between 15-second and 30-second video length limits, but now a new slightly longer time duration has also been made available. In addition, Instagram is also bringing new protections for teenage users by defaulting them into private accounts and making it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people on the platform. It will also send push notifications to current teenage users, urging them to make their accounts private.

The social media platform took to Twitter to announce the expansion of video length for Reels. Moving forward, Instagram users will be able to make up to 60-second Reels. TikTok, the Reels arch-rival, recently expanded its limit to 3 minutes to offer its creators the option to make slightly longer and versatile content without losing the fast-flipping nature of the platform.

Furthermore, Instagram has also announced that it is introducing new protection measures to make teenagers' social media experience safer. It is defaulting new joinees under the age of 16 (18 in some countries) into private accounts. A private account lets only people who follow you see posts, Stories, and Reels. Random users can't even comment on their content and posted content cannot be seen in sections like Explore and hashtag.

Instagram's New Sensitivity Filter Said to Be Censoring Users’ Work

For young people who already have a public account on Instagram, it will show them a notification highlighting the benefits of a private account and explaining how to change their privacy settings. “We'll still give young people the choice to switch to a public account or keep their current account public if they wish,” the company says in a blog.

All of these changes make it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people and limits the options for advertisers to target young people.

Amazon's annual shopping extravaganza, Prime Day, is our focus this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.