Instagram vs YouTube: From IGTV to 90-minute videos, Instagram makes another long-form push

Instagram is taking another shot at YouTube. The Meta-owned platform is testing a new long-form video format called “Features”, allowing creators to post horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes, as it looks to keep more creators and viewers within its ecosystem.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri and vice president of product Tessa Lyons announced the format in a six-minute video. The move marks a significant shift for Instagram, which has built much of its video strategy around short-form, vertical Reels. “For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram,” Mosseri said. His concern was that longer videos could pull users away from the social interactions that have traditionally been central to Instagram.

That thinking has now changed. “The thing that the team has been working on that we’re excited to share with you is trying to make it so that the short-form and the long-form video can be symbiotic,” Mosseri said.

Features will allow creators to publish longer, horizontal videos suited to formats such as podcasts, interviews, comedy specials and other content that does not fit naturally into Reels. Instagram is also introducing “Clips as Reels”, allowing creators to take parts of a Feature and turn them into shorter Reels that can lead viewers to the full-length video.

“Reels is still going to be a core part of Instagram. But when you want to go deeper with the creators you love and the content that they’re creating, you should be able to do that on Instagram,” Lyons said. The idea is to make Reels and Features work together. A creator can post a full-length video as a Feature and use shorter clips from it as Reels. Those clips can then direct viewers to the longer video, allowing audiences to move from a short snippet to the full piece without leaving Instagram. Lyons said the company is already seeing people discover long-form videos through Reels during its testing.

Instagram’s second attempt at long-form video

This is not Instagram’s first attempt to take on YouTube. The company launched IGTV in 2018 as a dedicated destination for longer videos, with the ambition of creating a new home for creators beyond Instagram’s traditional feed. But IGTV failed to emerge as a serious competitor to YouTube, and Instagram eventually retired the IGTV branding in 2022 as it consolidated its video strategy around Reels.

The latest attempt is different in one important way. Rather than creating another standalone destination, Instagram is connecting long-form content to the Reels ecosystem that already has a large audience.

The push also extends to television screens. Instagram has been expanding its TV offering, giving users a way to watch its video content on larger screens. “We’ve been hearing for a long time that people love to watch Reels together in their living rooms with their friends,” Lyons said. “And we know to do that well, we need more than just short-form video.”

For creators, the biggest question will be monetisation. Instagram has not shared details of a separate advertising or revenue-sharing model for Features yet. That could become important as the company tries to persuade creators to invest in the format. YouTube already has an established revenue model for long-form creators, giving Instagram a clear challenge if it wants creators to move more of their longer content to the platform.

It will therefore be interesting to see how Instagram tries to woo creators into Features, particularly those who already have a strong business around long-form videos on YouTube.

Instagram is also testing “Series”, a space for episodic Reels, and making Live videos easier to discover beyond a creator’s existing followers. Features and Clips as Reels are currently being tested with a limited group of creators in the US and Brazil. Instagram has not yet announced when the format will become available more widely.