Instagram has just shared good news to Instagram fanatics: the photo and video-based social network is now allowing 60-second videos on its platform. But why?
Instagram rolled out the most recent update on March 29 to all of its users across the globe.
With the update onboard, Instagram is now increasing the allowed length of videos uploaded from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. It appears like the company has realized that 15 seconds is not enough to showcase one's creativity through their posted videos.
Instagram reveals on a blog post that in the last six months, the time people spent streaming videos increased by more than 40 percent. It thinks that longer videos signify diverse stories from the accounts users love the most.
Moreover, Instagram says it wants to bring "fun, flexible and creative ways to create and watch video on Instagram" to its users.
"As part of our continued commitment, you'll soon have the flexibility to tell your story in up to 60 seconds of video," Instagram says, adding that this is only one step of many its users will see within the year.
Sephi Shapira, the chief executive of performance mobile advertising company MassiveImpact, says that increasing the video length to full minute is about keeping Instagram users in the feed.
"Unlike Youtube where users jump from video to video, Instagram wants users to finish videos," says Shapira.
Paul Monckton of Forbes believes that increasing the length of allowed video clips on Instagram could prevent users from shifting to other platforms, in the likes of Snapchat or YouTube.
He also adds that it will also enable bloggers to push out more engaging content, for instance recipes or make up tips, that are difficult to cram into only 15 seconds.
Kathleen Chaykowski, also from Forbes, says that perhaps Facebook has realized that videos are key to boosting Instagram’s business, considering the impact of video ads on Facebook.
Forecasting company eMarketer predicts that Facebook-owned Instagram could have mobile ad sales of $1.37 billion in the United States and $1.48 billion across the globe within the year.
In the meantime, to sweeten the pot, Instagram is also dishing out one more great news, particularly to iOS users. It is bringing back a well-liked functionality on its iOS app, which is the ability to put together several video clips into one.
"For iOS, we're also bringing back the ability to make videos out of multiple clips from your camera roll," it says.
With the new 60-second limit on videos, users will certainly have a greater chance to show off what they've got.
Note that iOS users have to download the iOS app's version 7.19 and they're good to go.
Again, the ability to post 60-second videos is pushed out to all Instagram users across all platforms while the feature to stitch together multiple clips is released only to iOS users.
Instagram says that it is rolling out the update in waves starting March 29, which means that there is a possibility that some users can still receive the update on succeeding months.
However, you may check out if the update has already landed on your handset by trying to take a 60-second video and posting it. Once you have successfully uploaded the video, then it means that you can now benefit from this nifty feature, along with other new functionalities Instagram has recently given to its app.
Not so long ago, Instagram has also given its web version an upgrade with the addition of a new drop-down box for notifications.
