Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, speaking in April 2019 Credit: Anthony Quintano / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons (cropped) Instagram has started testing a new format for long, horizontal videos called Features. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri and product chief Tessa Lyons announced the test on Monday. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) Instagram is testing a new video format called Features, which lets creators publish videos up to 90 minutes long. The company is pitching it at podcasters, comedians and other creators who want to share full-length shows without leaving the platform. The test is starting with a small group of creators in the US, with some in Brazil also taking part, Instagram spokesperson Megan Buckley told The Verge.
Features will appear in users’ main feeds and on the Explore page. Instagram is also testing Reels that link to a full-length Feature, and plans to let creators group related Reels into a series on their profiles. The idea is to make shorter clips a way into longer videos, rather than treating the two formats as separate products. The change will also affect Instagram’s TV app, which will prioritise Features.
The app launched on Amazon Fire TV in the US in December 2025 and has since expanded to Google TV and Samsung TVs. Support for Apple TV is coming soon, as earlier this year, Instagram also introduced a way to watch Stories on television. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has previously been reluctant to embrace long-form video. He worried that giving people more reasons to watch videos would leave them with less time to share content with friends, a behaviour he considers central to the app.
That view is now shifting, and Instagram wants short clips and longer programmes to complement each other, Mosseri said. A podcast or comedy special, for example, could be published as a full episode, with shorter clips helping it reach new audiences. “We want to be the most culturally relevant platform, and to do that, we need to show up where people are,” Mosseri said in an interview with creators Colin and Samir. For now, Instagram does not plan to share advertising revenue from Features with creators, although the company has left open the possibility of changing that later. This is not Instagram’s first attempt at long-form video.
In 2018, it launched IGTV, a separate app designed for longer clips, before shutting it down in 2022. The new format is part of a broader push by Instagram’s parent company, Meta, to introduce new products this autumn, including its Muse AI agent. Also tagged with Get the TNW newsletter ✕ Close Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
Leave a Reply