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- Instagram is testing ‘Features,’ a new horizontal video format that supports videos up to 90 minutes long.
- Short Reels could link directly to full-length podcasts, interviews and other videos, keeping viewers on Instagram rather than sending them to YouTube.
- Testing began with creators in Brazil and is expanding to a small group in the US. There’s no confirmed release date for Australia.
Just when we all got comfortable with watching videos on the internet vertically, Instagram wants us to turn our phones sideways again. The Meta-owned social media platform is testing a new long-form video format called ‘Features‘. It’s a new feature that lets selected creators upload horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long. Full-length podcast episodes, start-to-finish interviews, entire comedy specials and whole news segments could all find a home on Instagram. Instead of another 30-second clip telling you to watch the rest somewhere else, you could watch the whole thing without leaving the app.
But we’ve been here before. Back in 2018, Instagram tried building a dedicated home for long-form video with IGTV. It never really took off as a separate destination, and the standalone app was eventually retired in 2022. Four years later, Meta is back at it, with Instagram giving the format another shot inside the app.
Instagram wants Reels to lead people straight into the full episode, rather than sending them elsewhere. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri and vice president of product Tessa Lyons outlined the plan on 26 October, while Mosseri demonstrated the new format in a conversation with American creator duo Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry.
“This conversation, being over an hour, can live on Instagram,” said Mosseri.
The test is currently limited to selected creators in Brazil and the US, with no confirmed Australian rollout, but there’s still plenty for us to break down in what could become a major shakeup in the world of long-form content platforms.
But good luck Googling new “Instagram Features” from here on out. Not sure the naming department thought that one through. Oh well.
What Happened to IGTV?
When Instagram launched IGTV in 2018, it focused on longer, mostly vertical videos as the logical next step from its photo-sharing roots. Vine shut down the year before, leaving a gap for the quick, creative videos that made the six-second platform so popular. But while short-form video was finding a new audience, IGTV went the other way, letting creators publish videos up to an hour long.
Instagram made IGTV available in its main app and as a standalone download, but neither approach made it a compelling destination for longer videos. Instagram removed the IGTV button from its home screen in 2020, before merging IGTV and Feed videos into Instagram Video in October 2021. The writing was already on the wall, and by March 2022, the standalone IGTV app was gone. Instagram backed Reels as TikTok’s popularity kept growing.
Long-form video never entirely disappeared from Instagram, but IGTV didn’t give people a strong enough reason to change their viewing habits. Even Mosseri wasn’t convinced long-form video belonged on Instagram. He had argued that encouraging people to watch lengthy videos could take time away from sharing content and connecting with friends. In his latest announcement, he acknowledged he’d been against the idea for years. So what changed? And why is Instagram going back for its hat?
Reels Can Be Trailers For Something Longer on Instagram
The new approach starts with what Instagram knows people are watching: Reels.
Take the Man of Many ‘Daddies’ podcast. We often share a funny or revealing 30-second clip as a Reel on Instagram, but the full interview usually lives off-platform on YouTube, a podcast app or somewhere else entirely. That gives Instagram a reason to keep the entire viewing experience under one roof. In a related experiment called ‘Clips as Reels’, Instagram demonstrated how creators could turn portions of their longer videos into Reels that link back to the full Feature, letting viewers keep watching without ever leaving the app.
During the same conversation with Colin and Samir, Instagram showed how long horizontal videos could appear in the Explore section, using wider thumbnails that occupy two grid spaces. Creators are also being offered a new way to reach viewers beyond their phones. Instagram has expanded its TV app to Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs and, most recently, Apple TV in the US. It’s also testing the ability to save longer videos to a watchlist for big-screen viewing via the dedicated TV app, rather than expecting them to watch an entire episode while holding their phone sideways.
With foldable phones now including the iPhone Duo, Instagram has also adapted its app to better use the larger folding display. With the Duo supporting side-by-side multitasking, it’s easy to imagine watching a horizontal Feature on one side of the screen while doomscrolling through everything else on the other. Instagram hasn’t announced anything like that for Features (yet), but it offers an interesting glimpse of where the format could go.
Whether it’s a tablet like the new iPad Mini, a foldable, your computer, or your smart TV, bigger screens clearly suit Features content better than a standard non-foldable smartphone. And if Instagram can connect the short clips people discover on their phones with the longer videos they’d rather watch elsewhere, it might have a better chance of keeping them around.
Can Instagram Really Compete With YouTube?
YouTube’s first-ever video, ‘Me at the zoo’, was uploaded by co-founder Jawed Karim on 23 April 2005. More than two decades later, it’s become THE home for long-form video, and creators already have plenty of reasons to publish there. Instagram’s challenge isn’t simply convincing people to watch longer videos. We already are. It’s about convincing those same people to watch those videos on Instagram instead.
But there’s a bigger wrinkle beyond what the viewers see in their feed. The money side of the creator content equation matters, too. YouTube offers eligible creators a share of advertising revenue from their videos. Instagram has subscriptions, sponsorships and other ways for creators to earn, but hasn’t announced a comparable ad-revenue-sharing programme for Features. If Instagram wants established podcasters and video creators to make Instagram their main destination, it will have to pay up.
Content creator Brandon Davis was less than impressed with the announcement. “Instagram launching ‘longform’ video on the platform is laughable, not only because IGTV already existed but mainly because it’s the only platform that pays ZERO to creators on the platform,” he wrote on Threads.
View on Threads
Davis has a point about direct payments for video views, although Instagram does offer creators ways to earn through subscriptions, gifts and brand partnerships. What it doesn’t have is a widely available advertising revenue-sharing programme for Features comparable to YouTube’s.
Instagram is reportedly exploring individual commercial arrangements with early Features creators, and existing sponsorships could carry over to the longer format. Creators also won’t have to make their videos exclusive to Instagram. Whether Instagram can become more than a “LinkedIn résumé for creators”, as Davis puts it, will depend on what it offers them beyond another place to publish.
Creators everywhere are already uploading the same content in more than one place. On Instagram, Reels that once sent viewers to YouTube could now keep them watching on Instagram, and that might be enough to make Features a worthwhile place to publish. Whether it’s enough to reel in creators to invest more heavily in the platform is another question.
For viewers on the platform, the question is whether those who came for a quick scroll will stick around for the whole show. IGTV struggled to make that leap, but Instagram thinks it has a better way to get them through the door. Let’s see how long they stick around for.
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