While everyone is currently in a panic over Instagram’s looming timeline changes, the visual-centric social network app is hoping to quell concerns with a new feature. Starting Tuesday, the app will allow users to record video up to 60 seconds in length.
When video was first introduced back in 2013, the feature allowed users to record just 15 seconds of video at a time. The video feature arrived as Vine was rising to prominence and offered users nearly three times the space to share their videos as the Twitter-owned service.
At the time it was hard to not see the two services in direct competition, but now it’s clear the two have different goals. Instagram is continuing to follow in the footsteps of Facebook, the company that owns it, by putting emphasis on video and doing its best to keep users engrained in the app as long as possible.
Making the jump to 60 second videos is just the latest tweak to the platform that the company has made. Earlier this year, Instagram announced the addition of view counts on its videos and began curating footage from events into packaged products a la Twitter Moments.
Instagram said access to 60 second video will role out to users over the coming months. Users with iOS devices are also regaining the ability to make videos out of multiple clips from their camera roll, a feature that will be available later this week in version 7.19 of the Instagram app for iOS.
Illustration via Max Fleishman