Instagram begins testing "Features", horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes, with US creators

Left · 2Instagram began testing a long-form horizontal video product called Features on Monday 26 October 2026, with select creators in the U.S. 1 2 Left · 1The product is aimed at podcasters, comedians and other long-form creators, who can link short-form Reels (typically around three minutes or less) to the full video. 1 Left · 2Instagram has already been testing Features with creators in Brazil, according to The Hollywood Reporter and to Instagram spokesperson Megan Buckley, who spoke to The Verge. The Hollywood Reporter says Instagram plans to expand to tens of thousands of creators in the U.S. 1 2

Left · 1Early creators in the test include podcast host and Skims co-founder Emma Grede, beauty and fashion creator Monet McMichael, Preston Rakovsky and football content creator Donald De La Haye. The videos will also be recommended on Instagram's Explore page and elsewhere. 1 Left · 1Tessa Lyons, Instagram's vice president of product, said a viewer who sees a podcast clip can click to continue watching or open the full video, because creators can link Reels to their feature. 1 Left · 1Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video with Lyons that Mosseri had long been against long-form video on the platform, out of concern that Instagram should stay about connecting with friends and not only entertainment. Mosseri said the team is now working to make short-form and long-form video "symbiotic", like podcasts or comedy specials that exist as both long videos and shorter clips. 2

Left · 1The Hollywood Reporter places the move in the context of Netflix, Disney and others adding podcasts and creator videos to win viewing hours from YouTube. It notes that YouTube's revenue sharing, which gives qualified creators 55 percent of ad revenue, is a hurdle for competitors. 1 Left · 1Lyons said Instagram is working on "a few different deals" with early creators, with no exclusivity requirement, and that existing ad deals and branded content will carry over into the videos. Instagram will also help creators without existing deals find them. 1 Left · 2Features will be available on mobile, but Instagram expects much of the deep viewing to happen on Instagram's TV app, which launched late last year as a pilot on Amazon Fire TV and has since expanded to Google TV, Samsung TV and Apple TV. 1 2

Left · 2Instagram is testing other video features too: clips pointing to a long video, "Series" for episodic Reels, and better discovery of live video. The Hollywood Reporter says Series reached out to microdrama studios in Southeast Asia from June, with plans to bring it to the U.S. by the end of the year or early next year, and that live video in the Reels tab is launching in Indonesia and Brazil, with the U.S. planned for next year. 2 1