I expect you’ve noticed how Instagram Videos (IG Video) has transfigured into Instagram Reels, right? Lemme explain:

Instagram recently terminated/obliterated/decimated IG Video (formerly dubbed, IGTV). Now ALL videos on Insta are vertical ↕️—i.e., either Stories, Reels, or Livestreams.
Any IG Videos less than 15-minutes were relabeled as Reels—so now your Reels Grid probably looks gross with disproportioned cover images and freeze frames 😡. I feel ya!
So how long can Reels be then? Welp, in order for your Reels to be distributed in the official “Reels Feed,” they cannot exceed 90 seconds. What’s more, that’s STILL the limit if you’re recording the Reel in Instagram’s built-in editor. That said, if you publish a prerecorded video that’s longer (the same way you used to publish an IG Video), it’ll still end up as a Reel—it just won’t distribute in the Reels Feed. Makes total sense 🙄.

Before this change, IG Lives (after a broadcast concluded) could be posted as IG Videos. Now they’re posting as Reels—and I’ve seen more than 20 minute runtimes. So… same as before, I expect video runtime is dependent on the follower-size of the account (e.g. fewer than 10,000 followers and so on)..
So, in a nutshell, what’s actually different? To put it simply: all VIDEO is VERTICAL 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 on Instagram.