Instagram wants to stop being just a platform for short videos. The social network owned by Meta has begun testing this Monday, October 26, a new feature that will allow publishing and playing horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes, a format specially designed for podcasts, interviews, monologues, and other content that until now found its main showcase on YouTube.
The tool, called Features, will initially be launched with a selected group of creators from the United States, after a first testing phase in Brazil. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Instagram plans to gradually expand the experiment to tens of thousands of American creators, although it has not yet announced a date for its general launch or for its arrival in Spain.
The main novelty lies not only in the duration of the videos but in the possibility of going directly from a Reel to a full content. In this way, a user who discovers a fragment of an interview will be able to access the entire conversation without leaving Instagram.
How the 90-minute videos will work on Instagram
The new feature will allow creators to link their Reels with longer horizontal videos, so that the short fragments serve as a gateway to interviews, podcasts, and full programs.
Until now, Instagram had concentrated much of its audiovisual strategy on Reels, designed for quick consumption and distribution of short videos. With Features, Meta aims to increase the time users spend within the platform and provide creators with a space to publish more extensive content.
Tessa Lyons, Vice President of Product at Instagram, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that viewers will be able to discover a fragment of a podcast and continue watching the complete recording from the same environment.
In addition to links from Reels, long videos may appear among the recommendations in the Explore tab and in other discovery spaces on Instagram, allowing them to reach users who do not previously follow their authors.
Instagram seeks to compete with YouTube in the podcast business
The bet from Meta comes at a time when video podcasts have become a format of interest for major entertainment platforms. YouTube has consolidated its presence in this market, while companies like Netflix and Disney are also incorporating programs and content featuring digital creators.
Instagram aims to leverage its ability to distribute short videos and convert that audience into viewers of full content, without forcing users to move to other applications.
Competition, however, does not depend exclusively on playback tools. YouTube has a monetization system that allows certain creators to receive 55% of the corresponding advertising revenue, in addition to facilitating commercial agreements with brands.
For the moment, Instagram has not announced an equivalent revenue-sharing model for Features. The company is working on different agreements with the creators participating in the initial tests and will allow incorporating advertising collaborations that they already have contracted into the videos.
Meta also wants to help find commercial agreements for creators who still do not have a business structure or stable relationships with advertisers.
Who will be able to use Instagram's new long videos
The initial phase will be limited to certain U.S. creators, including Emma Grede, podcast host and co-founder of Skims; Monet McMichael, specialized in beauty and fashion; Preston Rakovsky, known for his interviews about personal relationships in New York, and Donald De La Haye, content creator related to American football.
Instagram had already tested this technology with creators from Brazil and plans to expand its availability to tens of thousands of accounts in the United States.
The company has confirmed that it will not require exclusivity from participants, so they can continue publishing their programs on YouTube and other platforms. This condition differentiates its proposal from certain exclusive distribution agreements reached by entertainment services.
However, the availability of Features for the entire set of users and creators is still not defined. It has also not been announced when Spanish accounts will be able to use it.
Instagram podcasts will also reach television
The strategy of Meta does not end on mobile phones. Instagram wants long horizontal videos to also be consumed through Instagram for TV, its application intended for larger screens.
The company began to roll out this television experience last year on Samsung, Fire TV, and Google TV devices, and is now expanding its availability to Apple TV in the United States.
The goal is to make it easier for a user to discover content on their mobile and continue watching it on a television, especially when it comes to interviews or programs that are an hour long or more.
Lyons believes that large horizontal screens offer a more suitable experience for this type of video, so Instagram hopes that a growing part of its consumption will shift to televisions.
Instagram is also preparing Reels series and new live broadcasts
The arrival of 90-minute videos is part of a broader transformation of Instagram, which is also experimenting with episodic formats and new ways to distribute live broadcasts.
One of the tools in development is Series, a feature aimed at organizing Reels by episodes within a creator's profile. The company began contacting microdrama studios in Southeast Asia in June and later extended the tests to individual creators.
Instagram intends to test Series in more countries over the coming months and bring the feature to the United States between late 2026 and early 2027. It is also studying how to integrate this content into its application for televisions.
At the same time, Meta is testing the integration of live videos in the Reels tab, with the aim of allowing broadcasts to be recommended to people who do not follow the creator. This experience begins in Indonesia and Brazil, with plans for expansion to the United States during 2027.
With these new features, Instagram seeks to bring together short videos, complete podcasts, series, and live broadcasts on one platform. The question will be whether it can attract long-form content creators with economic conditions capable of competing with those already offered by YouTube.