Instagram is testing Features, a format for horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long. The test started Monday, October 26, with select creators in the US. It puts Instagram in direct competition with YouTube for podcasts and other long-form video.
The main change for viewers is how short clips connect to full videos. If a Reel shows a moment from a podcast you follow, you can jump straight to the whole episode. Tessa Lyons, Instagram’s vice president of product, described it to The Hollywood Reporter (THR):
What you’re now going to be able to do is, you see a clip of a podcast that you love, you can just click and continue watching or watch the full video
Where Instagram Features videos will show up
According to THR, Features videos will be recommended on the Explore page and in other parts of the app. Features will work on mobile. Instagram’s longer-term goal is to carry the viewing over to its TV app, which recently landed on Apple TV.
For regular users, that likely means more long videos surfacing in Explore if the test grows. As of October 27, Instagram hasn’t announced when Features might reach all users or other countries.
Brazil first, now the US
Instagram had already been testing Features with creators in Brazil, THR reports. It now plans to expand to tens of thousands of creators in the US. Early test creators named by THR include Emma Grede, Monet McMichael, Preston Rakovsky and Donald De La Haye.
The move is a turnaround for Instagram’s leadership. Adam Mosseri and Lyons explained Features in a six-minute announcement video. In it, Mosseri admits he had been against long-form video on Instagram, 9to5Google reports. 9to5Google also found the video can’t be viewed outside the US.
The creator pay question
On money, THR reports that existing ad and branded-content deals carry over to Features. Instagram is also working on a few different deals with early creators, with no exclusivity attached.
What the announcement didn’t include, per 9to5Google, was any mention of an ad revenue share program like YouTube’s. That is the gap creators raised in the comments, 9to5Google notes. For anyone deciding where to put a 90-minute podcast, it matters more than the format itself.
Mosseri has framed Features as early, saying Instagram is testing and listening to feedback. Creator pay is the first piece of feedback it will need to answer.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, 9to5Google
