Instagram Reveals IGTV Service for Long Format Videos

IGTV is available for everyone.

Well, if anyone’s going to compete with YouTube, it might as well be Instagram. The social media platform boasts more than one billion monthly active users, which is a testament to its outstanding progress. Back in 2012, when Facebook acquired it, Instagram had just 40 million monthly active users. Back to IGTV, the service was revealed recently at a media event in San Francisco. This is a standalone app that supports long-format videos of up to one hour. The current Instagram limit only supported one minute, so this is a major increase. Initially, the service was supposed to cater to the needs of celebrities and their fan base. Now, it looks like anyone will be able to upload long videos on IG.

What about the format?

Well, this is where things get a little tricky. IGTV wants you to shoot and display your videos vertically, which comes with its own set of issues. Some just don’t like the way vertical videos look, which is fair. Others, however, won’t really find the viewing experience comfortable, particularly since we’re talking about lengthy videos. Still, the introduction of IGTV could be a step in the right direction for the company, especially since the user base is already there. Instagram just needs to implement it properly and get all the right people to join in on the action.