After recent rumours that Instagram was keen to jump on the long-form video train, the Facebook-owned platform has today launched IGTV, a standalone app for playing vertical videos of up to an hour in length. As you’re probably aware, the maximum length on Instagram’s standard app is one minute.
You can get to IGTV via a button on the Instagram homescreen, but you can also just download it directly from the App Store right now. The new sub-platform will prioritise content from popular Insta celebrities, but anyone is free to create videos providing your account isn’t brand new or super small, but this will be expanded to everyone in the future.
According to the company’s presentation this morning, whether you access IGTV via Instagram or its own app, you’ll be presented with curated vertical videos straight away, allowing you to swipe through them or swipe up to browse videos recommended for you or see popular videos. You’ll also have the option to continue watching a video you started previously.
If you start following a user who makes content you bloody love, you’ll receive notifications when they release new videos in the Instagram app.
Of course, there’s the question everyone’s thinking – what about ads?
“There’s no ads in IGTV today,” CEO Kevin Systrom said during today’s announcement, but went on to say that the platform is “obviously a very reasonable place [for ads] to end up.” Yep, you can probably expect ads to start cropping up in the future, but this also means that creators will be able to monetise their content similar to how they can with YouTube.
In terms of Aussie content creators, here’s a list of folks already on board:
- @alexhayess
- @piamuehlenbeck
- @aubribrag
- @jheuston
- @darcyvee
- @andrew_lambrou
- @jakebley
- @jamiezhu
- @chrislanzon
- @tammyhembrow
- @ndelahoyde
- @jaiwaetford
And here’s who can suss on an international level:
- Lele Pons (@lelepons)
- Bryce Xavier (@brycexavier)
- Manny Gutierrez (@mannymua733)
- Dominic Chambrone (@theshoesurgeon)
- Tyler Blevins (@ninja)
- Susie Shu (@susiemeoww)
- Selena Gomez (@selenagomez)
- Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian)
- Madelaine Petsch (@madelame)
- Kevin Hart (@kevinhart4real)
- Ross Butler (@rossbutler)
- Virgil Abloh (@virgilabloh)
So there you have it, folks, consider this Facebook’s way of going full-tilt against YouTube, and with a user base of around 1 billion, they may just have the original video platform shaking in its boots.
