Instagram tests 90-minute videos to stop sending its viewers to YouTube

Adam Mosseri spent years saying no. “For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram,” the head of Instagram admitted in a horizontal video he recorded with Tessa Lyons, the app’s vice president of product, to introduce Features: horizontal uploads that can run for an hour and a half. The test started with a small group of creators in Brazil and is now reaching select creators in the United States. Almost every headline drew the same conclusion: Instagram is coming for YouTube.

That reading is half right. Instagram is not trying to replace YouTube as the place where long video lives and makes money. It is trying to stop being YouTube’s trailer. Its clips already do the discovery work for podcasts, interviews and comedy, and the full episode then plays somewhere else. Features is built to keep that viewer on the last tap. Without a way to pay creators for the long version, it will win clicks, not creators.

The difference matters to anyone who watches podcast clips on a phone, because it changes what happens after the tap. It matters more to the people who make those clips, because it changes where a full episode should go and who, if anyone, pays for it.

What Instagram is actually testing with 90-minute videos

Features lets selected creators post horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes, pitched at podcasters, interviewers and comedians, according to KTLA. A companion test, which TheWrap reports also began in Brazil, lets up to eight short clips point to a single long video; TechCrunch says the tool is called Clips as Reels. Dexerto lists some of the first testers: podcast host Emma Grede, beauty creator Monet McMichael, interviewer Preston Rakovsky and football creator Donald De La Haye. Dexerto also reports that the videos do not have to be exclusive to Instagram and that creators can keep their existing advertising deals.

The television is part of the plan. TheWrap notes that Instagram’s TV app already runs on Samsung, Fire TV and Google TV in the US and is arriving on Apple TV. “We think the best viewing experience for long-form horizontal content is on a big horizontal screen,” Lyons said, as quoted by Dexerto. Instagram has not said when the format will open to everyone.

Instagram’s real target is the tap that leads to YouTube

Mosseri described the problem himself. Speaking to creators Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, he explained how podcasters use the app today: “You slice it up, you use platforms like Instagram as the top of funnel to raise awareness and then you kind of go to, you know, a podcast player or YouTube or wherever to watch the full-length thing.” TechCrunch puts it more bluntly: many creators treat their Instagram accounts as promotional arms for their YouTube channels.

Lyons framed the change the same way. “Reels is still going to be a core part of Instagram. But when you want to go deeper with the creators you love and the content that they’re creating, you should be able to do that on Instagram,” she said in the announcement video. The A.V. Club pointed out that neither executive named a competitor. They did not need to. Instagram does not have to beat YouTube to win something here. It only has to stop sending people there.

The case that Instagram can take on YouTube

The strongest version of the opposing view deserves a hearing. Instagram already owns the moment when a viewer discovers a podcast or a comedian, which is the moment YouTube most wants. A fan who can keep watching without switching apps is the easiest viewer any platform will ever win. Mosseri says the company is “very committed to it long term,” the TV app gives long videos a screen to land on, and creators are not being asked to give anything up, since the uploads are not exclusive. Meta makes its money from advertising, and TechCrunch notes it could eventually put ads inside these longer videos.

Supporters also argue that this is not a repeat of Instagram’s last attempt. That effort was built around vertical video and a standalone app. Features is horizontal, sits inside the main app and is fed by Reels that already reach huge audiences. On paper, that fixes most of what went wrong before.

Why YouTube’s lead over Instagram is about money and the living room

The paper version skips the paycheck. Creators in YouTube’s Partner Program receive 55% of the ad revenue from their videos, TechCrunch reports, and YouTube says it paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over four years. Instagram has nothing comparable for Features. “It’s too early to share a long-term monetization model, but we’re exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch. A spokesperson told Variety, as relayed by KTLA, that Instagram is funding some creators directly while it works out a long-term model.

Mosseri has also explained why he is wary of paying. On the same Colin and Samir interview he said Instagram has “still a small performance-based program, but … we spend more money than we make back by a long shot, and so it doesn’t really make sense to scale up because we’re just burning capital.” A 90-minute episode costs real money to produce. Brand deals help, but brands pay for an audience, and that audience can watch the same episode on YouTube.

Then there is the living room. TheWrap, citing Nielsen, reports that YouTube has been the most-watched streamer or channel on all of US television for three years running, and that it accounted for 15.8% of all TV usage in August, more than twice the share of Netflix. Instagram’s TV app is only starting to arrive on the main platforms.

History adds a warning. IGTV launched in 2018 with hour-long uploads for all but smaller and newer accounts, TechCrunch reported at the time. In 2020, CNBC reported, Instagram offered creators 55% of IGTV ad revenue, the same rate as YouTube. The IGTV brand disappeared in October 2021, the standalone app was pulled in March 2022, and IGTV ads ended as Instagram turned to Reels. IGTV had YouTube’s paycheck and the wrong shape. Features has the right shape and no paycheck.

What is confirmed about Instagram’s long-form test, and what is still unknown

Confirmed: Mosseri and Lyons announced Features on 26 October 2026. It allows horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes, it was tested first in Brazil and is reaching select US creators, a separate test links up to eight clips to one long video, the uploads are not exclusive, and YouTube pays Partner Program creators 55% of ad revenue. Instagram has announced no equivalent payment system.

Unknown: how creators will be paid, when the format will open to everyone, and whether the expansion to tens of thousands of US creators reported by The Hollywood Reporter happens. Also unknown is whether people will sit through an hour of Instagram on a television. Calling the test defensive is our reading. Instagram describes it differently: Lyons told Bloomberg the goal is “to be the best place for social entertainment.”

So can Instagram take on YouTube? For the moment after a clip, yes, and that is a real loss for YouTube. For the creator’s income and the evening on the sofa, not until Instagram decides to pay. Until then, a podcaster’s full episode on Instagram is a favour, not a business.

Tags: meta, youtube, instagram, Adam Mosseri, IGTV, long-form videos