Instagram Features: 90-Minute Videos Take On YouTube

Instagram has spent years teaching the world to watch in 30-second bursts. Now it wants you to sit through a 90-minute comedy special.

The Meta-owned app is testing Instagram Features, a new format that lets creators upload horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long. It’s a direct move into YouTube’s territory, and it comes with a catch Instagram hasn’t yet explained: how the people making those videos will earn money.

What is Instagram Features?

Instagram Features is a long-form video format that supports horizontal uploads of up to 90 minutes, aimed at podcasts, deep-dive vlogs and comedy specials. It’s being tested with a select group of creators in the US, after earlier trials in Brazil.

Long videos alone wouldn’t make this a big story. The details around them do. Instagram is also adding a tool called “Clips as Reels”, which lets a creator cut a short Reel from a full-length Feature. Anyone watching that Reel sees a direct link to the complete video. Reels become the trailer, and the long video becomes the main event.

Viewers get flexibility too. They can save Features to their phones or cast them to a TV. To make the big screen worthwhile, Instagram is bringing its TV app to Apple TV, adding to existing support for Samsung, Fire TV and Google TV.

There’s a second experiment running alongside. “Series” lets creators group related episodic Reels into a dedicated space on their profiles, so followers can watch an ongoing story from start to finish without hunting through a feed.

Why is Instagram going after YouTube now?

Because short videos are great for attention and awkward for income. Reels and TikTok clips rack up millions of views, but they leave little room for ads. Most creators on these platforms therefore depend on brand deals rather than payments from the app itself.

YouTube works differently, and it works well. It places ads on videos and shares 55 per cent of that revenue with creators. By the draft’s account, YouTube has paid more than $100 billion to creators and media companies over the last four years. That’s the gravitational pull Instagram is up against. If a creator’s best earning potential sits on YouTube, their best work will end up there too.

Features is Instagram’s attempt to keep that work, and those creators, inside its own app.

Will creators actually make money from Features?

Not through a set ad revenue-sharing plan, at least not yet. Instagram currently has no fixed revenue-sharing arrangement for Features, and that’s the biggest open question around the format.

The company says it knows creators need to be paid. A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that it’s looking into performance-based incentives and building new ways for creators to earn from fans and brands. Instagram head Adam Mosseri addressed the confusion in a post on X. He said the team is testing the format slowly, understands that the financial side is extremely important, and is actively exploring ways to help long-form creators get paid. He promised updates.

Fair enough, but it’s a promise rather than a plan. Serious creators weigh a ninety-minute production against what it will earn, and “we’re exploring it” won’t be enough for long.

Haven’t we seen this before?

Yes, and it didn’t end well. Instagram launched IGTV as a separate app in 2018. It failed to pull viewers away from YouTube and TikTok, and Instagram shut it down in 2022.

What’s interesting is how reluctant the man in charge was to try again. Mosseri said in an announcement video that he opposed bringing long videos back, because short Reels drive more sharing among users. Tessa Lyons, Instagram’s Vice President of Product, changed his mind. Her argument: Reels will stay at the core of Instagram, but people should be able to watch deeper content from their favourite creators without leaving for another app.

That shift in approach is the key difference from IGTV. This time, long videos live inside the main app, linked to Reels, rather than in a separate app people have to go and find.

What happens next?

For now, Features is a test, and a small one. Most Instagram users won’t see it soon, and nothing in the announcement suggests a wider rollout date.

Two things will decide whether it works. The first is money. Without a clear way to earn, big creators have little reason to move their long-form work from YouTube. The second is habit. Instagram has trained its audience to scroll, and asking people to settle in for an hour and a half is a different kind of ask. Apple TV support suggests Instagram understands this and wants to meet viewers on the living-room screen, where long videos have always done best.

Indian creators will watch closely. Podcasters, comedians and vloggers here already split their time between platforms, and a long-form option inside Instagram could change where they publish first. That depends entirely on the payment answer Instagram still owes them.

Instagram has tried this once and quit. The second attempt looks better designed, but the real test is simple: will creators get a reason to stay?

 FAQ SECTION

Q: What is Instagram Features?
A: Instagram Features is a new long-form video format that lets creators upload horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long. It’s built for podcasts, in-depth vlogs and comedy specials, and it’s currently being tested with a select group of creators in the US.

Q: How long can Instagram Features videos be?
A: Instagram Features supports horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long. That’s far longer than a typical Reel, and it lets creators publish full podcast episodes, extended vlogs and comedy specials directly on Instagram instead of sending viewers to another platform.

Q: Will Instagram pay creators for Features videos?
A: Not through a fixed plan yet. Instagram has no set ad revenue-sharing model for Features. Meta says it’s exploring performance-based incentives and new ways for creators to earn from fans and brands, and Adam Mosseri has promised updates.

Q: What is “Clips as Reels” on Instagram?
A: Clips as Reels lets creators cut a short Reel from their 90-minute Feature. People who watch the Reel see a direct link to the full video, so short clips can send viewers to the long-form version.

Q: Why did Instagram shut down IGTV?
A: Instagram launched IGTV as a separate app in 2018 but shut it down in 2022 after it failed to draw viewers away from YouTube and TikTok. Features takes a different route by placing long videos inside the main Instagram app.