A while back I uploaded a video to an Instagram account I handle. The video was a three minute television news story from 2010. I tried uploading it as a Reel, but ran into two problems. First, because the video has an aspect radio of 16:1 (it's a television news story after all), I had to edit it to fit. Second, Instagram limits Reels to 90 seconds (a fact of which I was not aware of at the time), so it chopped off the majority of the story.
I then tried uploading the video as a Post. This too presented problems. While I could upload the whole three minutes, Instagram insisted on reducing the aspect ratio, so that the whole picture wasn't on the screen. Worse yet, when one uploads a video as a Post to Instagram, you don't have any video editing tools. In other words, I couldn't correct the problem. Ultimately, I had to load the video into Canva and format it as an Instagram Story. I then saved it and uploaded it as a Post. That finally did the trick.
At any rate, I feel like I should not have to had gone through all of this. I should have been able to upload all three minutes of the video in its original aspect ratio. I seem to recall that in the past Instagram allowed for longer videos and for videos that have an aspect ratio of 16:1. Apparently, that has changed and I don't think the change was for the best.
Of course, I know why Instagram may have made the change. It was in 2020 that Instagram introduced Reels in an effort to compete with TikTok. Reels are pretty much like TikTook videos. Short (under ninety seconds) videos, generally with an aspect ratio of 1:16 (pretty much the size of a smart phone screen when held vertically). For some time Instagram has encouraged the creation of Reels, even when some users (like myself) show no interest in watching them or creating them. I suspect Instagram made changes in the way video is handled in an effort to force people to create Reels instead of longer videos in different aspect ratios.
At any rate, I do think this is foolish. First, ninety seconds is not enough time for someone to relay a good deal of information. I can understand Instagram not wanting people to upload really long videos to the platform (I don't think anyone wants to watch a feature film there), but I don' think three to five minutes is that long. Indeed, many news stories on local stations are longer than ninety seconds and run anywhere from one to three minutes. Second, it seems to me that if Instagram wants to compete with TikTok, then it would be better to offer things TikTok doesn't. Allowing people to upload longer videos in different aspect ratios might encourage people to turn to Instagram for uploading videos rather than going to TikTok.
Anyway, I do hope Instagram changes this so that one can edit an upload videos in different aspect ratios. Not only do I think it would make a lot of users happy, but I think it would also be advantageous for Instagram to do so. As I said, it would be something that TikTok doesn't have.
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