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Grow-up reel settings for Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts

Published 2026-11-01

All three short-video apps play vertical video full screen and lay their own buttons and text over it. A few choices when you make the reel keep it sharp and keep the important parts out from under those buttons.

Shape and size

• 9:16, 1080p (1080×1920) for Reels, TikTok and Shorts. It fills the screen with no bars.
• 4:5 for an Instagram feed post: it takes up more of the feed than a square.
• 720p is fine if your phone is slow to render 1080p. Every app recompresses uploads anyway.

Length

Fifteen to thirty seconds suits all three apps and keeps people watching to the end. The speed setting does the maths: more photos play faster. As a rule of thumb, 15 photos at about a second each, or 40 photos at about half a second each.

Captions and the end

• In 9:16 the age or date caption sits just under the chin, above the area the apps cover with your caption, username and music credit.
• The last photo holds a little longer. Ending on today's face is what makes people watch again.
• The optional end card says where the reel was made. Leave it on if you'd like to help other people find the tool; turn it off for a cleaner ending.

Music: built-in or the app's

• Built-in tracks are generated on your device by the tool's own code, so they contain no one else's recording.
• Trending sounds: if you want a sound from inside Instagram or TikTok, make the reel with No music and add the sound in the app when you post.
• Your own song: choose "My own song…" to put an audio file on the reel. Each app has its own rules for copyrighted music, which then apply.

Uploading without losing quality

• On a phone, use Share… after the reel is made, or download it and post it from your camera roll.
• Upload the original MP4, not a screen recording or a copy sent to yourself through a messaging app; messaging apps shrink videos.
• On Instagram, the "Upload at highest quality" option in the app's settings is worth turning on.