Instagram Launches IGTV, an App for Long-Form Videos

After a series of unconfirmed reports, Instagram has finally unveiled its newest platform called IGTV, which is focused on long-form video uploads and viewing.

The Facebook-owned social media company held an event in San Francisco, California on Wednesday where it officially announced IGTV.

The unveiling event also featured some widely followed Instagram personalities, including LaurDIY and King Bach, who have 4.2 million and 15.4 million followers, respectively.

Before the Wednesday event, there have been several reports pointing to Instagram’s new service that will bring the maximum length for video uploads from 60 seconds up to an hour. The June 20 event also checked out with a previous report from TechCrunch.

It has been confirmed that IGTV is going to be released as a standalone app with vertically oriented videos so they can be viewed in a full-screen setup. And since IGTV arrives in an already crowded market for streaming content, Instagram is launching IGTV in a very accessible way.

Instagram wants the new feature to reach as many social media users as possible for obvious reasons. So IGTV features can also be accessed on the standard Instagram mobile app.

“IGTV is different in a few ways. First, it’s built for how you actually use your phone, so videos are full screen and vertical. Also, unlike on Instagram, videos aren’t limited to one minute. Instead, each video can be up to an hour long,” Instagram said in a blog post.

IGTV is also designed to automatically play content as soon as users open the app. Posts are categorized based on the recommended content on the “For You” page, videos from profiles that a user follows in the “Following” section, and trending posts in the “Popular” segment. Since some content could be running for an hour, Instagram also included a “Continue Watching” page so users can pick up from where they left off in a recently viewed video.

Meanwhile, Instagram is obviously trying to give YouTube a run for its money as it also highlights having "channels" maintained by popular content creators. As on YouTube, regular IGTV users may set up their own channel.