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Back in 2018, Instagram rolled out IGTV with all the subtlety of a brass band marching through a library, expecting us to suddenly cozy up on our couches for horizontal epics—only to quietly shuffle it off to digital retirement a few years later.
If you just experienced a sharp twinge of technological déjà vu, take two aspirin and call me in the morning. Adam Mosseri once argued that watching a 10- or 20-minute video meant less time engaging with friends, which felt a bit like a restaurant owner telling you that eating a three-course meal ruins your appetite for appetizers. But platforms change their minds faster than a teenager redecorating their bedroom. Enter “Features,” Instagram’s latest grand experiment allowing creators to publish horizontal videos lasting up to 90 minutes.
It is a fascinating pivot. Instagram is essentially trying to perform the digital equivalent of turning a speedy espresso shot into a slow-dripped artisanal pour, hoping we will stay at the café for an hour.
The Funnel: From 45-Second Teasers to 90-Minute Marathons
So, what has changed since the ill-fated days of IGTV? For one, the internet has finally agreed on a workflow. Today, your introduction to a sprawling, two-hour podcast is usually a punchy 45-second vertical snippet on your phone. You get hooked, you click, and—traditionally—you head over to YouTube to finish the journey.
Instagram wants to plug that leak. Through new tests linking short Reels to full-length horizontal videos, the platform is attempting to keep you firmly planted in its ecosystem.
As Sohail Qadri Khan of Kofluence points out, the economics of content production have evolved. “One episode becomes clips, carousels, and language versions,” he notes. Creators are already filming longer content; they just need a place to put it.
Yet, there is a fundamental human friction here. Asking someone to casually scroll through Reels and suddenly pivot to a feature-length documentary is like walking into a comedy club for a quick sip of water and accidentally staying for the entire seven-hour improv festival.
From Smartphones to the Living Room Couch
To bridge this gap, Instagram isn’t just relying on your phone screen anymore. The platform has been quietly testing a dedicated television app on Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs, and Apple TV.
It is a clever strategy. As industry experts note, people consume content differently depending on the hardware. On a phone, you might watch a podcast in fragmented bursts between meetings. On a living room TV, you just might let the whole thing roll. Of course, this puts Instagram on a collision course with YouTube, a heavyweight champion that has comfortably ruled the living room television for years.
Show Me the Money
Of course, creators are not running charities. While production costs are mitigated by chopping a single shoot into a dozen bite-sized pieces, making a 60-minute masterpiece still requires capital.
Right now, Instagram hasn’t quite rolled out a broad, YouTube-style advertising revenue-sharing machine for this new format. In markets like India, where nine out of ten creators cannot rely on platform payouts as a full-time gig, brand partnerships are king. If a brand is going to sponsor a deeply integrated 30-minute segment, they will want to know who is actually sticking around past the opening credits. Retention metrics will be everything.
Ultimately, Instagram’s latest gamble isn’t about proving that long-form video exists—we all know it does. The real test is whether users can be persuaded to adopt a slower, more deliberate rhythm on an app built entirely for lightning-fast digital grazing.
Source reference: buzzincontent
Disclaimer: This article was generated and formatted with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence.
