IGTV renamed to Instagram TV: you can now upload 60-minute clips

The company is rebranding IGTV to "Instagram TV" and getting rid of the exclusive IGTV video format. Videos posted to the main Instagram feed can now last up to 60 minutes - a duration that was previously reserved for IGTV videos - and you no longer have to leave your feed to watch them.

An Instagram spokesperson said the IGTV app, now called the Instagram TV app, will remain "the place people visit for the purpose of watching videos."

IGTV was introduced in June 2018 and was essentially meant to be the mobile equivalent of YouTube, creating a platform for people to find and watch longer videos. But the longer format never caught on. And just two months later, an app called TikTok appeared in the US.

Since then, Instagram has refocused its video efforts to compete with TikTok with its short video format Reels. Reels was launched in August 2020, and Instagram has been actively promoting it, giving it a central place in the app's navigation, starting to sell ads, and placing it in Facebook's news feed.

However, Reels still has one significant flaw: It doesn't offer a coherent way to pay content creators like YouTube and TikTok do. Facebook plans to pay creators $1 billion by the end of 2022.

Source: theverge

Illustration: Jakob Owens on Unsplash