New Delhi: Soon, you can post videos as long as 90 minutes on Instagram. The new long-form video called ‘Features’ has been rolled out for select creators in the US on Monday.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said in a statement that the horizontal videos will aim at podcasters, comedians and other longform creators, who can direct their followers to longer videos.
“We are going to support long-form videos and horizontal videos. For people who are not watching right now,” he said. Instagram already has short-videos called Reels, lasting around three minutes or less.
The long form videos automatically become full-screen when played and take up to two grid spots on the phone.
The idea behind this new feature is to keep the viewer on Instagram even if they want to watch the longer version of the video.
Mosseri cites an example where podcasters generally slice the video, and post it on Instagram. But with the long form video, Instagram will help building tools clip it, so that it can become short pieces of video.
“And then, for the users who want to dive in, they can decide to dive in and get the full thing,” Mosseri said.
Competing with other platforms
Instagram has been testing the feature in Brazil, and has now rolled it out for thousands of American creators. Under the section ‘Explore’ users can expand and look for long videos.
Netflix, Disney and other OTT platforms are adding podcasts and videos from creators to their platform to keep the users on their platform as well. But social media platforms continue to battle with YouTube, which gives 55 per cent of ad revenue and helps getting brand deals.
Tessa Lyons, Vice-President (Product) at Instagram said they are also working on creators for Features but an exclusive deal with podcasters, like Netflix has, is yet to work out.
“For established creators who already have those relationships, they can bring that content with those placements and that branded content. And we also think that there’s a big opportunity for us to help creators who don’t yet have that infrastructure and that business behind them,” Lyons told the Hollywood Reporter.
Long form videos will be available on mobile, she said, and gradually take it to Instagram for TV.
“We think the best viewing experience for longform horizontal content is on a big, horizontal screen, and so I think that is where we will expect a lot of the deep consumption to happen over time,” she said.
(Edited by Stela Dey)