Instagram has spent years training people to swipe through short vertical videos. Now it wants some of them to stay for an hour and a half.
The Meta-owned platform has started testing a new long-form video format called Features, allowing selected creators to upload horizontal videos lasting up to 90 minutes. The trial has already been running with creators in Brazil and is now expanding to a small group in the US, with wider access planned gradually.
The move puts Instagram 90-minute videos much closer to the territory occupied by YouTube, particularly for podcasts, interviews, comedy programmes, vlogs and other content that does not fit naturally inside a short Reel.
Instagram is not abandoning Reels to get there. In fact, its strategy depends on them.
Instagram Calls the New Format Features
The new format is being called Features.
Unlike the vertical-first design users associate with Reels, Features supports horizontal video and allows individual uploads of up to 90 minutes.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons announced the test on October 26.
That is a sizeable jump from the shorter videos that dominate the app today. The intention is not simply to let creators post a longer clip every now and then.
Instagram wants creators producing podcasts, comedy shows and other episodic programmes to have somewhere inside the app to publish the complete version.
The Instagram long-form video push could therefore change how creators use the platform. Instead of uploading a short clip and then telling followers to watch the full programme somewhere else, they could potentially keep the entire viewing journey inside Instagram.
Reels Will Act as Trailers for Longer Videos
This is probably the most important part of the plan.
Instagram is testing a feature called Clips as Reels.
A creator could take a short section from a 60-minute podcast, publish it as a Reel and then link that clip directly to the full episode.
Someone watching the short clip would not need to leave Instagram, open YouTube and search for the complete programme. They could move straight from the Reel into the longer video.
That is exactly where Instagram has traditionally lost viewing time to YouTube.
Short clips from podcasts and interviews already circulate heavily across Instagram. But the full episode usually lives elsewhere.
Features gives Instagram a way to keep that second part of the viewing session too.
Mosseri Was Previously Against Long-Form Video
The change is notable because Mosseri has not always been enthusiastic about turning Instagram into a long-form viewing platform.
He has previously argued that shorter content works particularly well for Instagram because people frequently share Reels, photos and posts privately with friends.
A 60-minute podcast is less likely to be forwarded in the same casual way.
Lyons appears to have helped change that thinking.
Instagram’s new position is that short and long videos do not necessarily need to compete. A Reel can help someone discover a creator, while a longer programme gives an existing fan somewhere to spend more time with that creator.
Mosseri described the goal as making the two formats “symbiotic.”
YouTube’s Real Advantage Is Still Creator Money
Making longer videos possible is only one part of competing with YouTube.
Getting creators to prioritise Instagram is harder.
YouTube has spent years building a relatively clear advertising model for creators. Eligible members of the YouTube Partner Program receive a share of advertising revenue generated by their videos.
Instagram’s monetisation system is less straightforward.
The platform offers tools including subscriptions, brand partnerships and some performance-based incentives, but Mosseri has acknowledged that brands remain the main source of income for many Instagram creators.
Meta has not announced a YouTube-style advertising revenue-sharing model for Features.
A spokesperson told TechCrunch that it is too early to provide a long-term monetisation model, although Instagram is exploring ways for creators to earn through brands, fans and the platform itself.
That could become the decisive issue for the Instagram vs YouTube battle.
Creators may happily upload clips to Instagram for reach, but convincing them to move full-length programmes there requires a stronger business case.
Instagram Is Also Moving Onto Television Screens
Ninety-minute videos make considerably more sense when viewers are not limited to holding a phone.
Instagram has therefore been developing its television presence at the same time.
Its TV offering has expanded across connected-TV platforms, with Apple TV joining other supported television ecosystems. Features is expected to become part of that wider living-room strategy.
Users will also be able to save long-form content and continue watching it through Instagram’s television experience.
This pushes the platform into a different kind of competition.
On a phone, Instagram mainly fights TikTok, YouTube Shorts and other social feeds for short bursts of attention.
On a television, it is competing for longer viewing sessions where YouTube has become particularly strong.
Instagram Has Tried Long Video Before
There is an obvious reason to remain cautious.
Instagram has attempted long-form video before.
IGTV launched in 2018 as a separate destination for longer creator videos, but the product never established the same cultural position as YouTube and was eventually folded back into Instagram’s wider video strategy.
The company is taking a different approach this time.
Features is not being presented as a separate world that users need to discover. It is designed to work alongside Reels, recommendations, Explore and Instagram’s TV experience.
The hope appears to be that Instagram’s enormous short-form discovery engine can feed viewers directly into longer programmes.
That connection was far less developed during the IGTV era.
The Test Is Still Limited
Users should not expect 90-minute uploads to appear on every account immediately.
The Instagram Features rollout remains a test.
It began with creators in Brazil and is being expanded to selected US creators. Instagram reportedly intends to grow the trial to tens of thousands of creators as it gathers feedback.
There is no confirmed date for a worldwide rollout.
Instagram will also need to work out several details that YouTube users already take for granted, including stronger long-form playback tools and, most importantly, sustainable creator monetisation.
Still, the direction is clear.
Instagram spent much of the past decade trying to become better at short video. Reels became central to that effort.
Now the platform wants those three-minute clips to become the beginning of a viewing session rather than the end of one.
If Features works, a creator could post the teaser, the full podcast and eventually the television version without asking followers to leave Instagram at all.
That would make 90-minute Instagram videos more than a new upload limit.
It would give Meta its clearest attempt in years to take viewing time directly from YouTube.
Source
Moneycontrol: Instagram announces 90-minute long-format videos to take on YouTube
