In a nutshell
Reels are short vertical videos you build by layering sound and text. On Instagram they appear in the feed, on profiles, in the Reels tab, in Explore and elsewhere, and they also show up on screens of people who don't follow you. Facebook has a feature with the same name.
Length and reach
According to Instagram's Help, a Reel can be up to 20 minutes when you combine several clips, but Reels longer than 3 minutes are not recommended to people who don't follow you (Shoot a Reel, as of October 2026). If you want to reach new customers, the basic rule is to keep it within 3 minutes.
| Length | Shown to followers | Recommended outside followers |
|---|---|---|
| Within 3 minutes | Yes | Eligible |
| Over 3 minutes | Yes | Not eligible |
Reels are the same vertical short format as YouTube Shorts and TikTok videos, so it is common to reuse one video across networks.
Tips for making them
Make it clear what the video is about in the first 1 to 2 seconds. Showing the result first, such as a steaming dish, a finished hairstyle or a completed room, keeps people watching. Some people watch with the sound off, so put the key points on screen in text too.
Rather than fancy editing, it is more important to settle on a way of making them that you can keep up. If you fix one template with the same framing, the same length and the same way of starting, the effort of shooting and editing each time goes down. For food, start from the finished plate; for a hair salon, start from the back view of the finished style. How to start is in How to start with short videos, and how Instagram's recommendations work is in The Instagram algorithm.
In SNS TOWN
If you attach just one video on the Instagram composer screen, it goes out as a Reel. You can choose whether to also show it in the feed. If you attach several images or videos, it becomes a carousel.
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