Instagram released its Reels feature last year in an attempt to compete with TikTok. The feature has garnered a lot of traction and the app continues to add features to it to improve the user experience. Now, the Meta-owned platform is allowing users to record Reels for 90 seconds. Previously, the time limit was limited to 60 seconds.
Instagram says it wants to give Reels users more room to express their visuals and stories by extending the length limit to 90 seconds. “You will have more time to share more about yourself, film extra behind-the-scenes clips, dig deeper into the nuances of your content, or whatever else you want to do with that extra time,” said Instagram in an official blog post.
Since the launch of Reels in India, the photo-sharing platform has seen several changes to improve the overall user experience. Instagram is attempting to make Reels more interactive than ever before by adding these features.
The Meta-owned app is introducing these features amid the reports of ByteDance working with partners to bring TikTok back to the country. The company has yet to provide any official information on this.
Along with the time extension, Instagram has also added templates, new sound effects, interactive stickers, and the ability to import your own videos. Both iOS and Android users can get the latest update with new features. Users can download the update from their respective Google Play stores. Also, the company is introducing popular Stories stickers to Reels which include Quiz, Poll, and Emoji Sliders.
Earlier this week, the photo and video sharing app added a new alert feature named Amber alert. This allows users to see and share notices of missing children in their area. The Amber alert tool has been developed in partnership with organizations like the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, the National Crime Agency in the UK, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US, the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico, the Australian Federal Police and more, the company explained. Currently, the feature is available only in 25 countries and the company is planning to expand it further.
