How long is a video story on instagram
Instagram Story Video Length: How Long Your Videos Should Be
The maximum length for an Instagram Story video is 15 seconds.
But if you're wondering how to get around the time constraint, here’s a simple trick: You can string multiple 15-second clips together to make a longer video sequence.
IG Stories are short video clips that disappear after 24 hours. Stories are only visible to your followers.
Instagram Story videos are shorter than the average “story” format of other social media platforms:
- Facebook Stories: Up to 20 seconds
- Snapchat Stories: Up to 60 seconds
- WhatsApp Status: Up to 30 seconds
Story content isn't just limited to video. You can intersperse images and videos to create a more textured Story experience for your followers. Like a carousel post, viewers can tap through a mix of images and videos in your Story sequence.
How do Stories compare to other types of Instagram videos?
- Instagram Story videos: The maximum length for an IG Story video is 15 seconds. Photos in Instagram Stories appear for 7 seconds.
- Instagram Reels: Reels are Instagram's response to TikTok. A Reel video can last up to 60 seconds.
- Instagram Live videos: Livestream videos shot from the Instagram app can be up to 4 hours long. They can also be uploaded in their entirety to your Story or Feed after they've ended.
- Instagram Video: As of October 2021, IGTV video and Instagram Feed videos are now one format—Instagram Video. Video previews on the feed last up to 60 seconds. Regular accounts can upload video clips between 15 seconds and 10 minutes in length. Verified accounts or accounts with large followings can upload up to 60-minute videos.
- Instagram Video ads: Story ads can last between 5-15 seconds.
Reels ads, up to 30 seconds. And Feed video ads can last up to 60 seconds.
How to edit the length of an Instagram Story video
If you're starting with a video that's longer than 15 seconds, and you want to post it to your Stories, you have two options:
Option 1
If you want to post longer videos from your camera roll to Stories, but they exceed the 15 second limit, Instagram automatically splits the first minute of your video into 4 x 15-second story cards.
As long as the video is less than a minute, you're fine. And since you're starting with a single video, your sequence will still maintain a sense of continuity, even though it's broken into separate parts.
Option 2
If your video is longer than a minute, Instagram will turn the first minute into 4 x 15-second cards like in Option 1, but will discard anything past the 60-second mark.
To upload the full video you’ll need to trim your content manually using Instagram's native video editing feature.
Or, you can use a quality third-party video editor tool like CutStory to trim and edit your footage before posting.
Credit: Instagram
Is it better to use long videos or short videos?
Long and short Stories can both work well.
It ultimately depends on the type of content you're looking to post and how well you can capture and hold the viewer's interest.
→ Pro tip: As a rule of thumb, the longer the story sequence, the more you'll need to incentivize users to continue watching. Keep reading for a few tips on how to do this.
But first, let’s take a look at how to make either format work for you. You’ll also learn how to make an Instagram Story video that gets people to engage.
Longer videos
Stringing several Instagram Story videos together gives you more space to share your message.
The challenge?
If your first video doesn't hook a user in the sequence, they will likely ignore it and tap to the next Story in their feed.
That first video has to grab their attention. Let’s take a look at how this works in practice.
Example
: EverlaneLength: 90 seconds+ across multiple Story cards
Everlane sells ethical activewear, including a variety of quality denim goods.
To communicate one of their central themes—transparency—they published a sequence of stories to educate followers on the truth about modern denim manufacturing.
But education alone isn't enough to hold people's attention. You need to incentivize them to watch your content.
Everlane accomplishes this with interactive polls and quizzes to increase engagement and therefore, Watch Time. This makes it easy for viewers to tap through to the end of the Story sequence.
- Engage your audience by asking questions: Use binary yes-no engagement poll stickers (just tap a button to weigh in).
- Use micro commitments: A small form of engagement at the start, or micro commitment, increases the odds you’ll stick through to see the end.
- Combine education with interaction: Multiple polls interspersed with facts and insights for more engagement opportunities.
Why it works:
Everlane's first Instagram Story card opens with a simple question that immediately grabs your attention: "Denim is notoriously dirty… Do you know why?"
The hook in the first second of the video determines whether or not a user is sticking around to watch the rest of the Story.
Everlane interspersed "question" cards with "education" cards, which makes the educational experience fun and interactive, and makes it easy for people to tap through the full Story sequence.
Shorter videos
Once upon a time, there was an app called Vine. Vine videos were 6 seconds long and could tell entire stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Shorter instagram Story videos—under 15 seconds using a single Story card—can be highly effective and addictive too.
The key is remembering they need to stop a user in their casual Story swiping.
You have to grab their attention, just like longer videos.
Let’s look at an example from a company that sells custom couches DTC and see why it works.
Example: CouchHaus
Length
: 14 secondsView this post on Instagram
A post shared by Couch Haus (@couch_haus)
- Design for sound-off: Most people don’t watch Instagram with sound on. This is true of Stories and most other IG video placements. Be sure that your content doesn’t require sound to understand. Use captions to communicate the key points.
- Quick video cuts: Within this single 15-second Story card, there are at least six different video clips strung together to tell a simple coherent story. This adds motion and visual variety, which keeps you watching.
In just 14 seconds, you've learned exactly how the product works and what makes it interesting.
Why it works
While not necessarily the norm for Stories content (most are filmed spontaneously), this short video is heavily-edited to make the content shorter and easier to consume.
In a single Story card, CouchHaus walks you through the entire process of ordering a custom couch online. They use captions to communicate value props, and visuals to show off the product and simple order process.
If you strip away the video, you're left with a clear testimonial that explains the product and speaks to its value props:
- Custom couches online: I designed a custom couch on CouchHaus.
- Easy process: The process was so easy.
- Wide selection: I picked the color, fabric, and size.
- Pet-friendly: I chose the performance fabric, which is perfect for pets.
- Easy to clean: It's easy to keep clean, and it looks amazing in my house.
- Positive experience: I never knew it would be that easy.
Pro tip
If you're going to invest the amount of time and energy to create a video like this, make sure to repurpose it in as many places as you can.
For instance, this example is clearly a repurposed social ad, but it still works as an organic Story post. The same principles that make this CouchHaus video effective apply to all social ads and social media platforms.
How to make an IG Story video
There are several ways to do it. Here’s an easy tutorial:
Step 1
Log in to your Instagram account. Tap the “Your Story” icon in the top left of the Instagram app on iPhone, iOS device, or Android. You’ll jump straight into the camera.
Step 2
Shoot a video in the default “Normal” mode or drag the side menu to any of the following video modes:
Create
Use text, music, stickers and GIFs to bring your Story videos to life.
You can also use a number of interactive features to increase engagement with your Stories posts, including:
- Shoutouts: @ another account in your Story.
- Polls, Questions, and Quizzes: Let your audience engage with your Stories.
- Donations: Build goodwill by asking for donations to a good cause.
- Countdown timers: Drive urgency for product launches and special events.
- Gifs, stickers, templates: Use visual overlays to enhance your content.
Boomerang
Videos that play forward. Then play backward. Then forward again.
Layout
Divide your Story video into various grid patterns.
Hands-free
Record without holding the button down. Or, select a video from your camera roll, simply by swiping up.
Multi-capture
Take up to 8 photos at a time, in quick succession.
Dual
Record video using both camera lenses simultaneously.
Level
Displays an on-screen level to help orient your shot.
Step 3
Your video preview should now be looping. Tap the arrow icon in the bottom right of the video to instantly post the video to your Instagram Story.
Tap "Your Story" to post your video.
Tip: To upload multiple videos to your Stories sequence, consider using a tool like Sked Social to upload assets in bulk rather than one-by-one.
Instagram Stories tips
There’s no right way to make an Instagram Story video. But here are some tips to help you get started:
Optimize for the format
Instagram Story videos are always vertical. They’re designed to be watched on your phone. So when you’re creating content, be sure that it’s also natively vertical. If it isn’t, Instagram automatically adapts it to the Story format. But vertical videos that are designed for the platform tend to have higher engagement than non-native videos.
Keep it casual
You don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on expensive video equipment.
Video recorded from a smartphone works just fine. In fact, many times phone footage outperforms high-production video because it feels more natural and less like marketing.
Use Instagram add-ons
There are infinite ways you can deck out your Instagram Story videos. Draw all over them. Use hashtags, emojis, polls, and text to spice them up. These make your videos pop and make them more engaging. And they fit how Instagram users use the Stories placement.
Turn your top Story videos into highlights
Instagram Story videos last for 24 hours. Then they’re gone. But you can turn your Story videos into highlights that stick around on your profile forever. This is a great way to feature your best Story content.
Reshare Story video posts you’re tagged in
If you’re tagged in another user’s Instagram post, you can re-share their post to your Story. This is a great way to feature happy customers shouting out your brand. And sharing that enthusiasm with the rest of your audience.
Instagram Confirms that Videos Under 60 Seconds in Stories will No Longer Be Split into Segments
Instagram continues its gradual process of merging its video products into one, with the announcement that videos in Stories that are under 60 seconds in length will no longer be split into 15-second segments in the app.
As you can see in this in-app alert, posted by social media expert Matt Navarra, when you update your IG app, you’ll get a notification letting you know that your videos in Stories will no longer be cut up, making it a more seamless viewing experience.
Instagram’s been testing the update with selected users over the past year, as part of its broader process to integrate its video options, in line with the short-form video shift and general engagement trends.
Last October, Instagram retired its IGTV brand, as it combined IGTV and feed videos into one format, while in July, Instagram announced that all uploaded video under 15 minutes in length would be posted as Reels, further aligning its various video formats.
The merging of its video options is aimed at simplifying the app, while it will also, ideally, help Instagram maximize user engagement, by making all of its video content, in all formats, available in more places where users are interacting.
By shifting its video content to a more aligned format, that’ll give IG more video inventory to insert into user feeds, which it’s increasingly looking to do via AI-defined recommendations, as it follows TikTok’s lead in making your main feed more focused on entertainment, as opposed to being restricted to only the latest posts from people and profiles that you follow.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently noted that just over 15% of the content in Instagram feeds now comes from people, groups, or accounts that users don’t follow, with its AI recommendations contributing more and more to the user experience. Zuckerberg noted that he expects to see that amount more than double by the end of next year.
Instagram’s been working towards this for some time, with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri noting back in January that:
“We’re looking about how we can - not just with IGTV, but across all of Instagram - simplify and consolidate ideas, because last year we placed a lot of new bets.
I think this year we have to go back to our focus on simplicity and craft.”
The merging of its video formats will ideally facilitate more opportunities in this respect, while also making it much easier for users to understand where to find each different type of content – or increasingly, to not have to go searching for it at all, as it’ll be fed directly into your main feed, whether you follow the creator or not.
Which, of course, is a process that not all users are entirely happy with as yet, but still, Meta remains confident that they’ll come around as its recommendations algorithms continue to develop.
Instagram has confirmed the new Stories video expansion to TechCrunch, explaining that:
“We are always working on ways to improve the Stories experience. Now, you’ll be able to play and create Stories continuously for up to 60 seconds, instead of being automatically cut into 15-second clips.”
That’ll also make it easier to skip through those longer videos that you’re not interested in (as you’ll only have to skip once, as opposed to tapping through each individual frame) – though it may also have implications for creators who’ve structured sponsored content deals based on frame counts, as opposed to Story length.
That’s a relatively easy fix, longer term, with the focus shifting to length instead. But it may add some complications to the process in the immediate future, as the Stories eco-system evolves in line with the new process.
Instagram says that the new, longer video Stories are being rolled out to all users.
How long is Instagram story in seconds for video and photo
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Home / Blog / Instagram Stories Duration – How to Post Everything You Want
27.Jan.2022
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Article content
- Make multiple stories from one big video
- Add video to IGTV
How many seconds does an Instagram story video last
To experimentally understand how many seconds an Instagram story lasts, it is enough to try to upload a video clip longer than one minute into the editor.
Having done this experiment, we can conclude that the maximum duration for a video will be one minute. In this case, the file will be split into short fragments of 15 (fifteen) seconds, everything that is more than a minute will be deleted.
How many seconds does an Instagram story video lastConclusion: the maximum length of an Instagram story is 1 (one) minute.
When publishing a story in a story, try to keep within one minute so that the editor does not throw out the “tail”. The following will provide instructions on how to bypass this limitation.
How many seconds a photo is shown in Instagram stories
When photos are placed in a story, the situation is not as clear as with a video, and depending on the content of the story, the duration can vary from 5 to 15 seconds.
Thus, uploading a photo to a story, you can adjust its duration in time:
- You can upload one photo and it will be displayed for 5 seconds;
- If you add printed text to the photo, you can increase its duration by the time that the animation continues;
- By adding music to a photo in a story, you can adjust the size up to a second, i.
e. while the melody is playing, but no more than 15 seconds.
How to increase the length of the video and bypass the restriction
As it was written earlier, the duration of Instagram stories cannot be more than 15 seconds for one fragment and no more than one minute for the entire video. There are several ways to get around this limitation.
Make multiple stories from one big video
In order to be able to upload a video to the story for more than one minute, for this you need to upload the finished video file in parts.
In other words, the video file must be divided into parts equal to one minute.
To do this, you need:
- Determine how many minutes the video lasts;
- Choose a video editor for cutting video;
- Edit the video so that it can be uploaded to Instagram;
- Upload one-minute video fragments to stories, starting from the first;
- Complete the story with the remaining parts.
Using this method, when uploading a story to Instagram, you can ignore the duration of the video.
Add a video to IGTV
If the content that needs to be uploaded to the story is quite voluminous and it will take a lot of time to cut it, then it would be appropriate to add the video to IGTV.
In order to upload a video up to one hour long to IGTV, you need to go to the mobile version of Instagram or use another method to open the social network on your computer.
The algorithm of actions for adding videos to IGTV and publishing stories with a link:
- Open your profile on a computer;
- Upload video to Instagram;
- Wait for video processing;
- On a smartphone, go to the section with IGTV;
- Find the desired video and copy the url to IGTV;
- Create a teaser story with a call to watch the video in full;
- Use a sticker to add a link to IGTV in stories.
When viewing a story, users will click on a sticker with a link and get acquainted with the full version of the video content.
How long the story is shown
The posting period of the story is 24 hours from the moment of its publication on Instagram. At the end of the day, the content is deleted.
In order not to permanently lose the history, the account owner needs to set up archiving or activate automatic saving of stories to the device.
Archived stories can later be republished or made into Memories.
You can extend forty publications of a story by adding it to the albums with the current one. To do this, in the settings of the story, when playing it, click the appropriate menu item, select a folder or create a new one.
How to add stories to the currentStories placed in the current may be there indefinitely.
The maximum number of stories that can be uploaded per day
Unlike the story duration time, Instagram does not set a limit on the number of stories posted.
That is, you can download an unlimited number of them. This fact allows you to upload long videos, divided into minute fragments.
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Read related
How many seconds an Instagram story lasts: limits
January 28, 2022
7 minutes
Read the article Hide
Stories time limit
Stories on Instagram do not last long, because in general the concept of stories is bright, selected and unique moments of your life. For longer videos that can be created by bloggers in order to convey information that is difficult to perceive, another format has been created - posts in the feed. By the way, from October 2021, they can last up to 60 minutes!
However, now influencers are experimenting with formats, and stories have been especially affected by changes.
Now, storytelling is a whole art, in which you can find dozens of courses. The boundaries of the story format are blurred, and creators are overstepping various restrictions.
And therefore, if you still need to upload a long video, and the length of the stories limits you, then there is a life hack to overcome the limit. Now you will find out how many seconds a story lasts, what is its storage period, and in what ways you can bypass the application limits.
For photo
How much?
15 seconds photo story. During this time, most users manage to see what is happening in the picture, and if you need a more detailed view, you can pinch the story with your finger or just take a screenshot.
What does it depend on?
The limit does not depend on anything, no matter what photo you upload, no matter what size and proportions it has, the story will last 15 seconds. There is no way to do less, but read below how to increase the limit.
Video
How much?
For videos, the limit is 15 seconds.
If you upload a video that lasts a minute, then Instagram will automatically cut it into 4 short parts of 15 seconds each.
Can I take a video longer than a minute?
No, but again, this can be bypassed, and below we will tell you how to upload long videos (at least five minutes long) quickly and easily.
Expert opinion
Elnara Petrova
SMM marketer
How many seconds does a story last for different accounts? It's simple: both for business accounts and for personal pages, the limit is the same, so you shouldn't waste time and effort changing the profile category. If you are interested in how long the story lasts with GIFs or the addition of music and other interactive stickers, then the limit is still the same - 15 seconds.
How to increase the duration of stories
If we talk about photos, you can extend the duration of such files by re-uploading the same story. Thus, a person will look at the photo for 30 seconds, if he does not scroll and close the content.
Is this action appropriate? It is impossible to give an exact answer: on the one hand, it will attract attention and be stored in the memory of a person, and on the other hand, if the content is really interesting to the viewer, he himself will hold his finger on the story and view as much as he needs.
Speaking of how to make videos longer in stories and how to upload videos longer than a minute, you need editors. It can be a built-in editor on your phone, and by clicking “edit”, you can divide the video into segments of a minute, and then add it to the story.
There are also programs with which you can automatically divide the video into segments of 15 seconds, which will save you a lot of time. Sometimes such programs are paid, but if you search well, you can find free software or just use the trial period.
How to extend the life of a story
Everyone knows that uploaded stories disappear after a day, regardless of the category of the account.
This is especially unpleasant for those who invest their energy, time and soul into stories, taking vertical photos and videos seriously. How to act in such a situation?
The answer is simple: keep up to date. Highlights, also known as “highlights”, is a section under the profile header specially created for timeless stories. The section can be beautifully designed and modernized for yourself. How to keep history up to date? A small instruction will help you:
Enter the story creation mode, select content, add the necessary filters, effects, music, etc. Publish.
After publishing, open stories and find the button below, which has the name “add to current”.
Click on it, create a section in highlights. Write down the title. Later, you can add a cover and edit the section however you like.
What is the topical section for and how is it useful for business? There are at least five topics that you can arrange as separate five sections in highlights. All these topics will help the customer get to know the product and increase trust:
About us
Catalog
Discounts and promotions
Reviews
Contact information
the most boring story, and also with their help you can create an original design for highlights
The service is suitable for absolutely all sections of all existing social networks.
Follow the link, hundreds of unusual fonts in Russian and English are waiting for you:
You may find it useful
beautiful font
Choose a beautiful font in Russian and upgrade your profile
Hashtag selection
Social hashtag generator: collections by topic
Total
Now you know everything about Instagram story limits and how to bypass the time limit. If you want to get into boosting your Instagram profile, increasing your post and story reach, and learning how to do SMM marketing, but don't want to buy courses, check out our free articles for beginners and pros alike: 50 Ideas for TikTok Videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, Everything you need to know about Instagram Reels: 10 life hacks to get recommended, Instagram video ads to get customers and orders: 10 life hacks.
The concept of stories is bright, selected and unique moments of your life
For videos, the limit is 15 seconds. If you upload a video that lasts a minute, then Instagram will automatically cut it into 4 short parts of 15 seconds each
Highlights, also known as "highlights", is a section under the profile header specially created for eternal stories
Did you succeed you to increase the duration of the video in stories?
Yes
No
FAQ
Does it make sense to cut a very long video (from 15 minutes) into 15 second segments for stories?
In this case, it is better to publish the video as a regular post.
