How do you post a reel on instagram
How to post a video on Instagram, including Reels and Stories
August 17, 2022
Ashley Hamer
Managing Editor at Descript. Musician, podcaster, writer, science nerd.
As the fourth most popular social media platform in the world behind Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp, Instagram is a great place to share video content. But like every other app, it’s always rolling out new features, and it can be hard to keep up with all of the different options for posting videos. How do you decide between a regular Instagram video post, a reel, or a story? Below we break down each video type and how to post them, plus how to add extras like location tag, music, and gifs to keep eyes on your content.
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3 types of videos on Instagram
There are three different types of videos you can upload to Instagram.
- Instagram videos. Instagram videos (replacing the former IGTV) are essentially regular video posts that live on your profile alongside photo posts, and within their own video page on your profile. So a regular video post is a great option for content that you want to appear permanently on your page (or at least until you delete it). Instagram now allows 10-minute long videos for regular users, and up to 60 minutes long for blue checkmark-verified users.
- Instagram reels. Often thought of as a competitor to TikTok, Instagram reels are best for attention-grabbing videos, and high-performing reels might even get your content in front of new viewers. You can embellish reels — which now have 90-second time limit — with music, text, and graphics. Instagram reels appear in your scrolling feed, and can also be found on the tab between your regular feed and Instagram video section.
- Instagram stories. Instagram stories are short video clips, up to 15 seconds long, and are usually more casual and less-produced.
They only show up on your page for 24 hours before they disappear. But you can also save your content as a story highlight, which will pin the clips to the top of your profile permanently (or until you remove them). Videos that exceed the 15-second limit (but are less than 60 seconds) will automatically separate into 15-second video clips when you upload them as a story, for up to four videos. You can watch Instagram stories by clicking the profile avatars that appear across the top of your main feed — your own story will always appear first in the queue, even after you’ve watched it.
How to post an Instagram video
The optimal aspect ratio for an Instagram feed video is 4:5 (for portrait mode) and 1.91:1 for landscape mode (though both can be adjusted to a 1:1 ratio by double-tapping the preview screen or single-tapping the double arrows in the frame’s bottom-left corner). The minimal frame rate for videos is 30 frames per second (FPS), and for dimensions, the optimal size is 1080 x 1350p.
All videos under 10 minutes have a maximum file size of 650 MB, and videos up to 60 minutes have a max file size of 3.6GB.
To upload a video to the Instagram app:
- Open your Instagram app. If you’re not already logged into your Instagram account, enter your username and password on the login screen.
- Navigate to the upload screen. Click on the “+” sign at the top right of the screen, whether you’re on your home scrolling feed or profile page. Click “Post.”
- Find your video. After you click “Post,” a screen will pop up with an album of your most recent photos and videos. To browse a different album, select the drop-down where it says “Recents” and choose another option. Select the video you want to post. You can also click the icon with two squares to select multiple videos and make an album, or click the camera icon to record a video to post.
- Adjust your video frame size. Double-tap the video preview or (single-tap the double arrows) to expand or shrink the size of your video frame.
When you’re finished adjusting, click the “Next” button in the top right corner. - Edit your video. Instagram provides several editing features you can use before you upload your post. Select from a number of image filters, trim the length of your video, or turn off the sound completely using the “Volume” button at the top middle of the screen. Click “Next” when you’re done.
- Add any final details. After you’ve made your final edits, click on the video preview (where it says “Cover”) to choose the part of the video you want to use for the thumbnail. On this screen, you can also tag other Instagram users, add a location, create a promotion, share to Facebook, and more.
- Upload. Once you’re ready to post, click the blue “Share” button at the bottom of the screen. To edit or delete your post after uploading, click on the ellipses at the top right of the post, then select your option.
How to post an Instagram reel on your profile
Reels offer a number of fun flourishes you can add to your videos.
Video reels are meant for vertical viewing, so a 9:16 aspect ratio with dimensions at 1080 x 1920p works best when posting content. To post a video reel to your Instagram profile:
- Navigate to the upload screen. Click on the “+” sign at the top right of the screen, then click “Reel.”
- Select your video. To record a new video, click the center button on the reel upload screen. To select an existing video, click on the blue plus sign on the bottom left of the screen.
- Adjust your video. After selecting your video, you can trim the length by using the tool at the bottom of the screen, or adjust the speed using the left sidebar. Click “Add.” If your video is less than 90 seconds, it will move to your post queue and you’ll return to the upload screen where you can record or add another video segment. If you only want to post a short video, click “Next.”
- Edit your video. On this screen, add music, filters, captions, drawings, stickers, and more to your post.
After you’re done adding flourishes, click “Next.” - Tag and share. On the share screen, you can edit your cover image, add a caption, tag other users, rename your audio selection, and add a location. You can also choose whether or not your reel will display in your regular feed. When you’re ready to post, click the blue “Share” button on the bottom right of the screen.
How to post a video on your Instagram story
The optimal size and dimension for Instagram stories is 1080 x 1920p, with a 9:16 aspect ratio for portrait mode, and 16:9 for landscape mode. To post a video to Instagram stories:
- Navigate to the upload screen. Click on the “+” sign at the top right of the screen, then click “Story.”
- Choose your video. Record a new video by tapping the first “Camera” panel, or choose a video from the album of your choice. If the video is over 15 seconds, it will automatically separate at each 15-second mark of the video for up to one minute.
- Edit your video. On the preview screen, you can toggle the audio on or off, turn the video into a Boomerang, add captions, filters, stickers, music, gifs, and more. Click the ellipses in the top right corner to draw on your video or save it to your camera roll.
- Upload your video. Click the bottom left button to upload the video directly to your story feed, or hit the “Close Friends” button to only share with a select group of users.
Before you publish to Instagram
Before you start posting videos on Instagram, here are a few tips to ensure it all goes smoothly:
- Consider using hashtags. Using trending hashtags in your video captions can help expand the reach of your content and attract new viewers to your page.
- Follow the guidelines. Instagram has a few rules pertaining to posting content. For example, they do not allow content containing full nudity, hate speech, or threats of violence.
Read through Instagram’s community guidelines before posting your content. - Keep your videos to the point. If your videos are too long without a lot going on, people might lose interest in your content quickly. That said, if slow-moving content is your thing, go for it.
- Check the audio. If your video contains copyrighted music, there’s a high chance Instagram will remove your video. However, using the music feature on the app will let you overlay music to your video without risk of violating their guidelines.
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How to post a video on Instagram, including Reels and Stories
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Introducing Instagram Reels
Posted on August 5, 2020
Today we’re announcing Instagram Reels: a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos on Instagram.
Reels invites you to create fun videos to share with your friends or anyone on Instagram. Record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools. You can share reels with your followers on Feed, and, if you have a public account, make them available to the wider Instagram community through a new space in Explore. Reels in Explore offers anyone the chance to become a creator on Instagram and reach new audiences on a global stage.
How it Works
Creating Reels
Select Reels at the bottom of the Instagram camera. You’ll see a variety of creative editing tools on the left side of your screen to help create your reel, including:
Audio: Search for a song from the Instagram music library. You can also use your own original audio by simply recording a reel with it. When you share a reel with original audio, your audio will be attributed to you, and if you have a public account, people can create reels with your audio by selecting “Use Audio” from your reel.
AR Effects: Select one of the many effects in our effect gallery, created both by Instagram and creators all over the world, to record multiple clips with different effects.
Timer and Countdown: Set the timer to record any of your clips hands-free. Once you press record, you’ll see a 3-2-1 countdown, before recording begins for the amount of time you selected.
Align: Line up objects from your previous clip before recording your next to help create seamless transitions for moments like outfit changes or adding new friends into your reel.
Speed: Choose to speed up or slow down part of the video or audio you selected. This can help you stay on a beat or make slow motion videos.
Reels can be recorded in a series of clips (one at a time), all at once, or using video uploads from your gallery. Record the first clip by pressing and holding the capture button. You’ll see a progress indicator at the top of the screen as you record.
Stop recording to end each clip.
Sharing Reels
With Reels, you can share with your followers and can be discovered by the huge, diverse Instagram community on Explore.
If you have a Public Account: You can share your reel to a dedicated space in Explore, where it has the chance to be seen and discovered by the wider Instagram community. You can also share your reel with your followers by posting it to your Feed. When you share reels featuring certain songs, hashtags, or effects, your reel may also appear on dedicated pages when someone clicks on that song, hashtag, or effect.
If you have a Private Account: Reels follows your privacy settings on Instagram. You can share to Feed so only your followers can see your reel. People will not be able to use original audio from your reels, and people cannot share your reels with others who don’t follow you.
Once your reel is ready, move to the share screen, where you can save a draft of your reel, change the cover image, add a caption and hashtags, and tag your friends.
After you share your reel, it will live on a separate Reels tab on your profile, where people can find the reels you’ve shared. If you also share to your Feed, your reel will appear on your main profile grid, though you have the option to remove it.
Whether you have a public or private account, you can share your reel to your Story, close friends, or in a direct message. If you do so, your reel will behave like a regular Story — it will not be shared to Reels in Explore, it will not appear on your profile, and it will disappear after 24 hours.
Watching Reels
Reels in Explore showcases the best of trending culture on Instagram. Discover an entertaining selection of reels made by anyone on Instagram, in a vertical feed customized for you. If you love a reel, you can easily like, comment or share it with your friends.
You’ll also see some reels with a “Featured” label. If your reel is featured in Explore, you’ll receive a notification. Featured reels are a selection of public reels chosen by Instagram to help you discover original content we hope will entertain and inspire you.
Reels gives people new ways to express themselves, discover more of what they love on Instagram, and help anyone with the ambition of becoming a creator take center stage.
For more information on Reels, visit our Help Center.
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How to upload a video to Instagram in 2021: 5 ways
Video is not a photo, it is more difficult to work with it. In the early days of Instagram*, many third-party services provided the ability to upload videos to the social network. 2020 "cleaned up" the ranks of volunteers.
Let's look at how to add videos to Instagram* from a computer, and for beginners, we will repeat the process of uploading videos in the application from a phone.
From a smartphone
The easiest way to upload videos to an Instagram page* is to upload directly through the app on your smartphone.
You can add a video to Instagram Feed* in the following way:
Enter the app and click the create post icon You can add a finished video from your phone's Gallery or take a video directly from the app. Time limit 60 seconds. Then you will be prompted to apply a filter or select a coverIf your video from the Gallery is longer than a minute, then before posting you will be offered two options:
- 0022
- upload it to IGTV.
If you select shorten to a minute, you can do it right in the application. The video will be published in the feed. But if the original video you want to share is longer than 20 minutes, the program will warn you that the video file is too long.
What to do? Trim it with third-party programs.
For example, using VideoShow If you choose the second option - put the video on IGTV, then you will be given a time limit of 15 minutes.
There will be only a short announcement about it in the Feed. And if you don't want to, then you won't.
For more information on other video specifications, see The Truth About Instagram Videos*.
Uploading videos in Stories is done by clicking on your main profile picture.
You can click both on the Feed view page and in the ProfileVideo length is limited to 15 seconds, but if necessary, one long video can be split into several short ones before uploading. Here you can also shoot immediately or add from the Gallery. There are many different filters, effects and more available.
Read more about this in the article How to Use Instagram Stories*.
From a computer
Posting a video on Instagram* is more difficult here. Simply by opening your page in the browser, you cannot post new content to the Feed and Stories. The exception is IGTV. Otherwise, in 2021, there are only three ways to upload a video to Instagram * from a computer.
Through the delayed posting service
The easiest way to solve the problem is with the help of SMMplanner. You can add photos and videos to your Feed, Stories, and IGTV. Yes, the service is paid, but for minimal money you will get the highest pleasure from the process of downloading videos. Suitable for those who post content on Instagram* on a regular basis.
Read more about working with the service in the article “How to upload a video to Instagram* from a computer”.
Via Facebook Creator Studio
Official service from Facebook*. To link an Instagram* account, click on its icon and follow the instructionsTo use it, after logging into the service, link your Instagram* and Facebook* accounts to each other, and you must also have a business account or an Author account on Instagram*.
Switching to the Author's account is not difficult.
Go to Instagram settings* on your smartphone, select "Account" and then "Switch to professional account".
Choose the post category that best suits your content. Select "Author". You can then upload the video to your Stream. But you can’t make a carousel or add a video to Stories through the service. Alas.
Through the emulator
Another way to publish from a computer is to use an Android application emulator. By installing it on your computer, you will work with applications on the monitor, as if you were sitting on your phone.
Consider BlueStacks.
After installing the application, log in to your Google Play account In the search, enter the word "Instagram*" and install the application You can enter Instagram* by clicking on the Notifications icon... ... it in the section My gamesTo upload videos to Instagram*, you first need to add these videos to the emulator library.
Log in to Media Manager, yellow icon in My Games Click "Import from Windows" and select the videos you want You will see them in the imported files here Now go to the Instagram* emulator and upload the videos in the same way as you would on your phone: plus sign at the bottom in the center of the screen , and the Gallery will already have the necessary videos Now the moment about the performance of your computer.
If you have 4 GB. RAM and less, then each process in the emulator will take you 5 minutes or more; In other words, everything will slow down.
Through a browser
By opening your page through any computer browser, you can only post videos to the IGTV section.
Go to the IGTV section in your profile and click "Download"When working through a browser, you can download a video longer than on a smartphone, namely up to 1 hour.
If you want to track statistics on Instagram**, we recommend DataFan. You only need to connect your account once and select the type of report - the service will collect the data into a visual dashboard, and they will be updated automatically.
Conclusion
If you are an ordinary user of a social network and publish video from your computer once or twice a year, then transfer it to your phone's memory and publish it in the usual way. Or use an emulator.
If you regularly post videos to Instagram* that are stored and processed on your computer, delayed posting services and the official Facebook service* will help you.
But be aware of the limitations: the service on Facebook* is fairly recent, and Stories, carousel, and some other things are not available there.
How to upload videos to IGTV
In June 2018, Instagram announced the launch of IGTV, redesigned it in April 2020, and added automatic subtitles in September 2020. The constant evolution of IGTV only highlights its growing popularity and importance in the follower engagement process. Let's look at how to add video to IGTV from your phone and computer, how to enable automatic subtitles, and also offer 9 ideas for your content on IGTV.
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How to download the video in IGTV
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before downloading the video.
in IGTV, it is important to know a few technical features. Firstly, you cannot shoot videos on IGTV, for this you must first shoot a video on your phone or camera. You can upload videos in both horizontal and vertical formats. Secondly, the length of the video for IGTV uploaded from a mobile phone must be between 1 and 15 minutes. If from a computer - up to 60 minutes. You can choose a cover for the video from a fragment of the video or upload a photo separately. We talked about technical recommendations in more detail in our article - What videos can be uploaded to Instagram.
The title of video should briefly convey the meaning of the video or intrigue with an interesting question. The optimal title length is up to 30 characters. In the description, open the topic, highlight the questions that will appear in the video.
To reach as many people as possible, post a video to your feed (we'll look at how to do it a little later) and optionally include video display on IGTV on your Facebook page.
To do this, you need to link your account to a Facebook page, how to do this is described in the article How to link and unlink Instagram to a Facebook page.
How to add a video to IGTV from your phone
In the upper left corner, click on the plus icon and select "IGTV Video". Or, on the bottom panel, click on the plus icon and upload a video from the smartphone gallery and select "Long video". Add cover art from your smartphone gallery or select a still image from an uploaded video. Come up with a title and description for the video, add hashtags.
To reach as many people as possible, enable "Publish preview" - the first 15 seconds of the video will be published in the Instagram feed. Turn on "Show on Facebook" to add the video to your Facebook Page (for this, your Instagram account must be linked to a Facebook Page).
If you want to add subtitles, click "Advanced settings" and turn on "Auto generated captions".
Instagram rolls out this feature gradually, so it is only available in the app and not yet for all users.
If the video consists of several parts, select the "Add Series" function. Come up with a title for the show and a description. You can also add previously downloaded videos to the "Series". The convenience of this option is that when watching a video, a mark is added, by clicking on which the user goes to a separate tab with videos on this topic. If you do not want to post videos in series format, then just skip this step.
How to add videos to IGTV from a computer
If you want to upload videos up to 60 minutes, use the web version of Instagram. Go to Instagram.com and go to your profile. Click on IGTV (between the tabs with your posts and tags). Download the video. Select a cover and add a title with a description. Upload the video and cover in JPG or PNG format (minimum resolution 492 x 762 pixels). Add a title with a description.
If you want the video to appear in your feed, check the "Publish preview" checkbox. Check the "IGTV and Facebook Page" checkbox if you want to post the video to Facebook as well (for this, your Instagram account must be linked to a Facebook Page). Automatic subtitles are not yet available on the web version.
IGTV Content Ideas
Stories have been gaining momentum for quite some time, but now they have become one of the most popular types of content on Instagram. How promising IGTV is as well is difficult to judge, but if you need reviews, viral or educational videos to attract and retain customers, then you should include IGTV in your content plan.
Your own show. Cooking recipes, music show, business coaching, educational guide.
Vlog. You can shoot a vlog or travel video, blog about beauty (make up, nail, beauty treatments, fitness exercises, etc.).
Reviews and guide.
This type of content can be linked to almost every topic: a review of technology, a new arrival of goods (for example, for a showroom), a review of cosmetics, new movies, games, and more. Guidelines for using a product or ordering a service.
Humor and challenge. For bloggers, IGTV is a great way to share long videos with your vines or pranks. You can also arrange challenges, for example, for hairdressers - to do a hairstyle in 2 minutes or for makeup artists - to create a complex make up in 5 minutes.
News and trends. You can cover the latest news and evaluate it through the lens of your opinion or experience.
Answers to questions. Relevant for both commercial accounts and bloggers. You can make TOP-5 main questions from clients/subscribers and sort them out.
Reviews. To build trust and reputation, businesses can upload video reviews of their product to the IGTV channel.
For example, a girl takes pictures of your product unpacking and the first impression, a blogger makes a review and shares his impression about the quality of the product or demonstrates its use.
Live broadcasts. If your subscribers are used to the format of live broadcasts in stories, then you can upload them and duplicate them in the IGTV channel. In this way, you can save some useful content, and users can easily find it.
For image and reputation, a company can shoot interviews with the director of the company, an expert in a particular field, which will touch on the main questions and pains of customers. This can also include collaborations with bloggers - a joint discussion of some relevant topic.
Conclusion
IGTV videos are now mainly used by humorous publics and bloggers for reviews. For commercial accounts, this is still a developing channel. But in any case, IGTV has its own audience, so you should use it and stand out from your competitors at the same time.
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