Live testing has now begun, meaning it’s highly possible that the Instagram Stories time limit could be increasing. Get the latest details here!

Earlier this year, head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri stated that the app would be making a more concerted shift towards video content. Explaining how the algorithm works, Mosseri highlighted the importance of Reels on one’s profile engagement. Instagram upped the time limit of Reels in the summer, in a bid to compete with TikTok.

Now, it’s Stories that’s getting some attention. With people using Instagram for both business and pleasure, there have been calls to increase the Instagram stories time limit for a while. Capped, currently, at 15 seconds, anyone wanting to share a longer story has to have it split into different frames.

Developer and social media researcher, Alessandro Paluzzi spotted the live testing last week on his Instagram.

This development is now being tested with a small group of users, according to the Meta-owned platform. Giving an explanation for the experiment, Instagram said:

“The ability to create longer Stories posts comes highly requested by our community. We’re excited to be testing 60-second Stories so that people can create and view Stories with fewer interruptions.” 

With Stories proving to be an effective boost for engagement, this will come as good news to those who rely on the app to market themselves. The video-based features of the app have existed in a very segmented way, thus far. The longer form feature, IGTV has now been wound down, having been combined with feed video content, named Instagram Video.

Although only in testing phase right now, it’s likely we’ll see the Instagram stories time limit increase more widely soon. With undoubtedly more developments and consolidations on the horizon, will we see Instagram’s video features merge into a more simplified place, mirroring TikTok?