Instagram Is Testing Feature-Length Videos and Moving Onto Apple TV in a Direct Challenge to YouTube

For years, Instagram has been the home of the quick scroll, with photos, stories and vertical Reels that last a few minutes at most. Meanwhile, the biggest players in entertainment have been fighting over something very different, which is time spent in front of the television. As streamers add podcasts and creator videos to hold viewers longer, the lines between social media and streaming keep blurring.

Instagram has tried this before. In 2018, it launched IGTV, a standalone app for longer videos that never gained much traction and was shut down in 2022. Now Meta’s platform is taking another run at long-form content, and this time it is integrating the effort into the main app.

Instagram is testing video lengths of up to 90 minutes and letting users watch Reels and more on Apple TV. The moves are meant to position the platform as a bigger competitor to YouTube.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri and product chief Tessa Lyons revealed the plans on Monday in a video shared on the platform. The test centers on a new format called Features, which is rolling out to a small group of creators in the US, with some in Brazil also taking part. Instagram says it plans to expand the trial to tens of thousands of US creators.

The company is also testing Series, a dedicated home for episodic Reels. That test has been running since spring in the US, India and Mexico, and it is set to expand to more countries through the end of the year. Instagram Lives will soon be shown beyond a creator’s followers in the Reels tab.

Features are horizontal videos designed for podcasters, comedians and other creators who want to publish full-length shows without leaving the platform. Instagram is testing different length limits, including up to 90 minutes. By comparison, Reels are typically about 3 minutes or shorter.

The longer videos will appear in main feeds and on the Explore page. Creators can also share clips as Reels to help people discover a full video, with up to 8 clips pointing to a single long video.

The second half of the news is a living-room push. Instagram’s TV app is now available on Apple TV in the US, requiring tvOS 26 or later. The app appeared quietly on October 23 and focuses entirely on video rather than feed posts, with Reels, longer creator videos, short series and live shows.

Viewing progress syncs across devices, so someone can start a video on an iPhone and finish it on the television. The app began as a pilot on Amazon Fire TV in December 2025 and expanded to Google TV in February and Samsung TVs in June. Livestream support on Apple TV is coming soon.

The most striking part of the story may be the shift in philosophy. Mosseri has long resisted long-form video, worrying that giving people more reasons to watch would leave them with less time to share content with friends, which he considers central to the app. He said in the announcement that he has been against long-form video on the platform for a long time.

That view has changed. Mosseri now says Instagram wants to lean into longer videos, including on TVs, and he sees short clips and full programs as symbiotic. Someone who watches a few clips from a podcast or comedy special as Reels may want to watch the full episode on a TV.

There is one big difference from YouTube. According to Variety, Instagram is still not planning a revenue-sharing program that would compensate creators for their work. On YouTube, qualified creators receive 55% of ad revenue, and the platform helps them secure brand deals.

Instagram has left open the possibility of changing that later, but for now the gap could be a hurdle in persuading top podcasters and comedians to commit.

The timing reflects a wider shift. Netflix, Disney and other services have been adding podcasts and creator videos to win more viewing time, and YouTube has become a major competitor on the biggest screen in the home. Instagram’s move shows that social platforms want a piece of that attention too.

Whether it works will depend on creators, audiences and the economics behind them. If the test succeeds, the next time someone sits down to watch a long show on their TV, it might be on Instagram.

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