Instagram is considering letting users post videos of up to an hour long, according to a Wall Street Journal report, raising the possibility of a major change for the Facebook-owned service.
The current limit for Instagram videos is one minute, unless users opt to do a live stream on Instagram Stories, a roughly two year-old service, which allows for longer live broadcasting. Initially, live Instagram Stories disappeared after being viewed, but the service later revised its policy to give users the option to share the clips and preserve them in Stories for up to 24 hours.
Instagram has reportedly been talking about the potential for hour-long videos with publishers and other creators. Instagram declined to comment on the potential feature.
In August 2017, Instagram said Stories had 250 million daily users. People under 25 spent an average of 32 minutes per day on the service while those over 25 spent an average of 24 minutes.
Overall, video has been an important strategy for Instagram’s parent company Facebook, which purchased the social media platform in 2012. Facebook has invested in features such as Facebook Live and original content that is available on Facebook Watch.