Instagram is testing “Features”, a new format for landscape video running up to 90 minutes. The videos appear in the feed and in Explore, and the test is running with selected creators in the US and Brazil. Creators can link a Reel to the long video, and Instagram’s TV app is meant to give the format priority. For now, Instagram isn’t sharing any ad revenue with the creators.
This is Instagram’s second attempt to take the fight to YouTube. IGTV launched in 2018 and was shut down four years later. The appetite for long video is clear enough in the numbers, though: in August YouTube accounted for a record 15.8% of all TV viewing time in the US, according to Nielsen. The audience is moving to the long format.
Whether Instagram can change users’ habits is another matter. Right now the split runs deep: Instagram for short, YouTube for long. If Instagram does move that line, brands get a new stage for podcasts, interviews and series.
