And once again, the great social media circle of life takes effect…

As anyone who's paying attention would have probably expected, Instagram is testing longer Reels clips, now experimenting with 3-minute and 10-minute Reels internally in the app.
Instagram will reportedly now allow users to upload much longer videos as Reels - following TikTok's longer video uploads, which the latter rolled out last year (though some users can no longer see the option to upload a 10-minute video on TikTok, you can still upload 10-minute videos).

Which, as many people have pointed out, it essentially back to the future for IG, after it retired its long-form “IGTV” video option early last year. Now, it’s seemingly bringing it back, in a new form, though it would also provide a more integrated, streamlined video experience, all under the Reels banner, as opposed to trying to get people to tap across to other sections to view long-form content.

But as mentioned, it's pretty much in trend for social apps.

Short video was the thing when video first became available online, before clips gradually got longer until they eventually branched into live-streaming and TV-like content. Then people got tired of that, and again, short-form video became the thing, this time with Vine and Stories coming into vogue before eventually TikTok. Now, long-form, or mid-length clips are increasingly coming back, but whether users truly want to view longer video clips, or if the platforms want to offer longer video options to maximize their own monetization and creator retention potential is yet to be seen.

Or in this case, whether Meta's just copying TikTok once again, to negate any form of differentiation that TikTok might have and lessen its value as an option to IG.

Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that it is indeed testing 10-minute videos internally although it has not tested them externally as yet.

Would it be a game-changer? A difference-maker? Or will users be readily looking for the ambition to engage in long-form content, particularly since short-form Reels have been such a huge part of the Instagram and Facebook experience?

Or would it simply be one more thing that creators would have in their toolkit with very little interest from users?

In fact, it feels almost inevitable: longer video options will only continue to rise at a certain point, before we tune out again and lapse into the next biggest short-form craze.