Instagram Reels Vs Story: Which Is Better?
Information you should not miss when it comes to Instagram reels vs story!
Are you stuck between Instagram Reels vs Story? Can’t decide what to choose to have a better engagement? We all know how Instagram is becoming more sophisticated and developing new features daily. Instagram users happily used the IG story feature until reels came to the field.
Reels have multiple features that make your IG video entertaining to watch. But what is better, Instagram reels or stories? That is left to determine. We have outlined the differences between Instagram reels vs Story for you to decide which is fruitful for a creator to grow an IG follower.
Table of Contents
Everything About Instagram Story Vs Reels
The Instagram reel is a feature that was added in August 2020 as an alternative to TikTok after it was banned in certain countries. IG reels got a success overnight with their exclusive features. Still, with time, Instagram keeps adding certain reel features, like remixing a reel to make it more beneficial for content creators.
Engagement
Instagram Story- With updates, Instagram stories now provide numerous features like polls, ask me a question, rates, hashtags, mentions, and links to interact with the followers. You can learn about your followers’ opinions and help yourself grow. However, your followers only see Instagram stories unless someone searches for you. So somewhere, in engagement, Instagram reels stay behind.
Instagram Reels- Even though the Instagram story holds numerous features for engagement, reels engage more with the users. How? You may ask. Instagram reels not just stay on your follower’s feed but other users’ too whenever they go on an explore page. And now, Instagram is like a loop because once one enters, they get caught up. With the help of this, people get to know more about your existence and your work.
Drafting
Instagram Story- When it comes to drafting, this cannot be done for Instagram stories. If you want to pre-make the story to upload it later, you must save it as a draft. However, later you can only use the available Instagram story feature to edit your draft before posting.
Instagram Reels- If you have a busy life, you can draft your reel for now and edit it later before uploading. You must go to your feed to find the draft on Instagram. Once you get, you can add more text and hashtags, tag people, and add location, but you cannot go back to remake the reel.
Lifespan
Instagram Story- If you add stories on Instagram, you must be conscious of the fact that an Instagram story has a shelf-life of not more than 24 hours; your story disappears after that. So, if you would have added something related to your business or any special announcement, then it will be on the story for 24 hours only. After that, your followers lose this opportunity to see your story again until it is highlighted on the profile page.
Instagram Reels- Unlike the Instagram story, reels are provided with a long shelf-life, just like a normal post. It means it can be seen even after 24 hours; it will be available for a lifetime because it gets posted in the Instagram feed. So, whenever your followers want to look at a particular post again, they can see it anytime.
Save & Share
Instagram Story- As a user, when we are consuming entertainment from Instagram, we always come across something we feel like saving and sharing with friends. The Instagram story does not have a saving option, but sharing? Yes. Although you can share the story, it won’t last more than 24 hours, as we mentioned. Your friend also won’t be able to see the shared story later.
Instagram Reels- Again, unlike Instagram stories, reels have the option of saving as well as sharing. And it lasts for life until the users delete it. This is how Instagram reels provide more enjoyment and engagement.
Length
Instagram Story- When it comes to length, users are provided different lengths for Instagram reels and stories. For the Instagram story, each story can last up to 15 seconds. So, if you want to announce or share something related to your business or life, an Instagram story would be a great option.
Besides this, when you go with the music feature of Instagram stories, you can adjust the duration of that story according to your will. Right. The music features allow you to keep the duration between 5 seconds to 15 seconds. So that you do not have to compromise with the lyrics you love.
Instagram Reels– If you wish to post a reel on Instagram, then your video should be up to 90 seconds, not more than that, or else Instagram won’t allow your video to post. You heard it right. However, if you wish to make the reel less than 90 seconds, you can. It gives a duration of 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, and 90 seconds to make a reel. With this duration, you can help yourself to make the videos depending on the purpose of the video.
Explore Page
Instagram Story- Instagram stories are so limited that your followers can only see them until someone else searches for you and purposely see your story. However, your Instagram account should be public if you want others to see your story because a private account restricts this action.
Instagram Reels- Coming on explore page is one of the effective ways to gain more traffic to the Instagram page. And if your Instagram account is public, then you can take advantage of it too. When you post a reel, it goes on the explore page for others to see, and if you post quality content, then there is a high chance that it will generate interest in others to follow you. Sounds so nice, isn’t it?
Format
Instagram Story- Formatting an Instagram story is so fun to do because, in the story, we can add videos as well as images with more creativity. There’s also an IG story layout available online. One can also use that to make it more captivating. It has stunning features like gifs, stickers, filters, draws, etc, to make your story more compelling.
Instagram Reels- Where you get these stunning features in Instagram stories, you get nothing like this in Instagram reels. You can only add videos with everything within them except the captions and tags you want to add. We know this doesn’t sound good, but you can make it attractive by adding everything you want within.
Caption and Hashtags
Instagram Story- Caption has been put everywhere, whether you post on your feed or Instagram stories. Including this, one can add hashtags to their story and in posts. However, if you put hashtags in your story, it will be beneficial only until it disappears after 24 hours.
Instagram Reels- Instagram reels have the option of both caption and hashtag, and as we know, reels last longer until the user deletes them; because of this, there is a possibility of it appearing on the featured hashtag pages. Which also helps you to grow your target audience.
Now, you know the difference between Instagram Reels vs Story. Along with this, We would like to highlight some more comparisons for your betterment, like Instagram reels vs videos and posts. So, here it goes!
Instagram Reels vs Video
Honestly, there is not much difference between them but some. Let’s look at it,
Duration
If you observe keenly, you may find the difference in the duration of reels and videos. Reels is a short video clip that lasts up to 90 seconds. Whereas the Instagram videos tool is updated, users can now upload videos for up to 60 minutes, which is like, oh my god! One can literally watch almost half the movie if it is uploaded.
Turn on notifications
As a user, we all have our favorite influencers, and as a fan, we don’t like to miss what they are posting, right? And maybe for people like us, Instagram has provided a feature like turning on the reel notification, especially. Which is unfortunately not provided for the Instagram videos.
But there is still a way to get notified; you can turn on the post notification by clicking on the bell icon at the top of the profile page of your favorite influencer.
Remix with the reel
Yes. You might be aware of the new feature launched by Instagram. Here, you can make and remix your reel with other users, just like Tiktok, where users used to interact with other users by making duets. And, of course, Instagram video is unlike Tiktok from anywhere, which states it is different from reels with one of these features.
Instagram Reels Vs Post
Reels are short and engaging videos on Instagram to connect with followers more because when we share the opinions we hold, it helps followers to understand us more. And the normal post we do on Instagram contains only images that don’t make it more engaging at all. These have the same features as likes, comments, hashtags, mentions, etc.
Tips To Go Viral On Instagram
Instagram reels are more engaging and enticing for their users. Now you know the difference between Instagram reels vs story, you must refer to the points listed below to understand the best IG marketing strategies to go viral on Instagram.
- Set your specific niche
- Change your reel audio name to become more discoverable and get new followers.
- Add text to your video
- Keep yourself updated with trends
- Add a call to action in your video caption
- Use relevant hashtags to come on the result page, or you can also take the help of the best hashtags generator if you have difficulty choosing the correct hashtags.
- Target peak viewing time
- Share your reels on your Instagram stories and feed.
- Use high-quality video
- Don’t violate Instagram rules
- Make your reels original
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is an Instagram reel?
The Instagram reel is a short video clip that users use to promote their business and to make entertaining or educational videos. It stays on the user’s feed for a longer time than stories. The video’s duration is a minimum of 15 seconds and a maximum of 90 seconds.
Q2. Is reel better than a post?
Instagram reels and posts and far different from each other. And if you are wondering is reel better than a post then the answer is yes! Because IG reels fascinate users more than anything else, and it also has the highest growth capacity.
Q3. How to post Instagram reels on story without posting?
If you want to share Instagram reel posts on the story without posting them, save them in your phone’s gallery after creating your reel. Then the way you upload pictures on IG stories, you can upload the video too.
Q4. What is Instagram reel length?
Instagram used to have 60 seconds reel length limit. But, after Instagram rolled out, it exceeded the reel length to 90 seconds.
Q5. How do I create a story on Instagram?
For creating a story on Instagram, you need to follow the guidelines mentioned below,
- Open your Instagram account and make sure you are logged in.
- Now, click on the + sign at the top right of the screen and select the story.
- After clicking on it, you will see your gallery images and videos, so if you wish to take anything from it, you can select it, or else you will also get a camera option at the top left to click.
- Once done with the selection, you can add text, hashtags, or anything you want.
- Finally, after adding everything, you can click on “your story” at the bottom, and you are done!
Q6. Are reels better than stories?
No doubt that the Instagram reel is better than IG stories, and we are so confident about it because after the reel has launched, the 44% engagement rate of the Instagram post dropped. This happened because IG came with a reel just after TikTok was banned in some countries, and over time, people got fascinated with the reel just like they had gotten with TikTok.
Q7. Can I post a reel as a story?
Whether you have a private or a public account, you can share your reel on your IG story anytime to entice your followers to watch it and visit your IG page. This process can also help you to boost your Instagram impressions.
Here, we have explicated everything about Instagram reels vs story, Instagram reels vs video, and Instagram reels vs posts. We hope you have understood how Instagram reels are becoming more advantageous and what Instagram stories are used for. By the way, choosing Instagram tools completely depends on the post you want to share, and when you know the difference, you can choose and understand what is best for what. Playing with new features is fun to do, so keep on exploring because the more you explore, the more you understand. Have fun!
Also, if you are a small creator and want to increase your engagement faster on your IG page, you can try sharing your post with your followers. If you don’t know how to do it, here is how to share a post on Instagram!