Instagram launches IGTV

Instagram is finally positioning itself as a YouTube rival. At an event in San Francisco, the company revealed that it will start allowing users to upload videos up to one hour in length, a huge increase from the previous one-minute limit.

Instagram has launched IGTV to house the new longer-form videos from content creators and the general public. Accessible from a button inside the Instagram home screen, as well as a standalone app, IGTV will highlight popular Instagram celebrity videos.

“It’s time for video to move forward, and evolve, IGTV is for watching long-form videos from your favourite creators.” said Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom onstage at the IGTV launch.

The IGTV app is available globally on iOS and Android as well as within the Instagram app through a TV-shaped button above Stories.

Viewers can swipe through a variety of longer-form videos, or swipe up to visit a Browse tab of personally recommended videos, popular videos, creators they’re following and an option to continue watching previously started videos. Users will also get notifications from the IGTV button alerting them to new content.

IGTV will allow creators to develop Instagram channels full of different videos which users can subscribe to as well as inserting links in the description of their videos to drive traffic elsewhere.

“It’s time for video to move forward, and evolve, IGTV is for watching long-form videos from your favourite creators,” said Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom onstage at the IGTV launch.

“There are no ads in IGTV today, but it’s a very reasonable place ads to end up. Since creators are investing a lot of time into IGTV videos, we want to make that sustainable by offering them a way to monetize in the future,” said Systrom.