Instagram is testing Features, horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, so podcasts and comedy specials can be watched in full on the app, not just as clips.
Instagram is starting a test of long videos, up to 90 minutes each, with select creators in the US. The new format is called Features. It is aimed at podcasters, comedians and other creators who make long videos. The test starts Monday.
Reels on Instagram are typically around three minutes or less. Features are different. They are horizontal videos that can run much longer. Creators can link a short Reel to the full video. Tessa Lyons, Instagram's vice president of product, described it this way: you see a clip of a podcast you love, then click to keep watching or open the whole thing.
Early creators include podcast host and Skims co-founder Emma Grede, beauty and fashion creator Monet McMichael, Preston Rakovsky, who interviews New Yorkers about love and relationships, and football creator Donald De La Haye. Instagram has already tested Features in Brazil. It plans to reach tens of thousands of US creators. The videos will also be recommended on the Explore page and in other places. No date was given for when every creator can use it.
Netflix, Disney and others are adding podcasts and creator videos to their services. Instagram also has to compete with YouTube, which offers qualified creators 55 percent of ad revenue and helps them land brand deals. Lyons said Instagram is working on a few different deals with early creators. Unlike Netflix's podcast deals, there is no exclusivity, so creators can post the same videos elsewhere.
Ad deals creators already have will carry over into their Features videos. Instagram also plans to help creators who do not have those deals yet.
Features will be available on mobile. The longer-term goal is the TV. Instagram for TV launched last year with Samsung, Fire TV and Google TV. It is now expanding to Apple TV in the US. Lyons said the best way to watch long horizontal video is on a big horizontal screen, and she expects much of the deep viewing to happen there over time.
Instagram is also trying Series, a home for episodic Reels on a creator's profile. In June it began contacting microdrama studios in Southeast Asia, and it has since reached out to individual creators. It plans to test Series in more countries and bring it to the US by the end of the year or early next year.
Live video is also being folded into the Reels tab, and live streams will be shown to people who do not follow the creator. That is launching in Indonesia and Brazil, with a US expansion planned for next year.
If you follow podcasts or post video for a business, Instagram is moving toward full episodes, so watch for Features to reach your account.
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