Instagram's 90-Minute Video Test Reworks the Reels Funnel

Instagram is testing videos up to 90 minutes long, and the number is only half the pitch. Select creators in the US test can post horizontal videos and link short clips to the full version. A Reel can become the trailer for a podcast episode or comedy special that a viewer watches without leaving Instagram.

That link is the product bet. Instagram already has a place where people encounter clips; now it wants to make the next tap useful to the people who made them. Its expanding TV apps add another possible destination for a longer watch. The open question is whether a smoother route from a Reel to a full show gives creators enough reason to put the show there.

The test remains limited. It does not mean every account can upload a 90-minute episode, or that viewers are already settling in for one on their TVs. The longer-video format starts on mobile; watching those programs through Instagram's TV apps is an ambition for later. Ninety minutes is a capacity Instagram is trying out, not a viewing habit it has won.

The Clip Gets an Exit Ramp

A podcast clip has a peculiar job on Instagram. It has to be entertaining on its own, then somehow persuade a viewer to seek out a much longer program. The viewer might have to remember the show's name and find it elsewhere. Each extra step gives the thumb another chance to keep scrolling.

Instagram's proposed route is shorter. Its long-video format, called Features, lets creators connect Reels to full-length videos. Someone watching a podcast excerpt could tap through to the whole video inside the app. Longer videos can also appear on Explore, giving them a discovery route beyond a creator's existing followers.

Consider what changes for a podcaster who already cuts an episode into Reels. The clip can still circulate as a short piece of entertainment. If a viewer wants the entire conversation, the creator can offer it at the point of interest rather than hoping the viewer makes a separate search later. That may improve the odds of a longer watch, but a tap-friendly path cannot make an hour-long episode compelling by itself.

Instagram has another problem to manage: people came to Reels for short videos. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has raised the possibility that longer videos could draw engagement away from short ones. His hoped-for arrangement is that the formats work together: the excerpt prompts interest, and the longer video serves the people who want more. A viewer who enjoys the excerpt might instead return to scrolling. The test has to show how often curiosity survives the tap.

The screens complicate the pitch in a useful way. A Reel discovered on a phone and a horizontal show watched on a television ask for different amounts of attention. Instagram's first TV app brought Reels to Fire TV; it is adding Apple TV alongside Samsung and Google TV devices. The TV apps are also expanding to support Stories and live streams, while Instagram's Series feature, which groups related short videos, is being tested for TV viewing.

Those additions give Instagram several ways to keep a creator's work together. They do not yet amount to a seamless phone-to-TV handoff for every full-length video. For now, the clearest connection in the test is the one between a short Reel and a longer video inside Instagram. The TV strategy raises a further question: can a clip discovered during a quick phone scroll persuade someone to choose that creator's full program when they have a bigger screen and more time?

IGTV's Lesson Was About the Shape of the Video

Instagram has tried to build a home for long videos before. Meta launched IGTV as a separate app in 2018 and shut it down in 2022. IGTV allowed only vertical video, a constraint that made it an awkward fit for viewers who wanted to turn their phones sideways. Its failure to catch on cannot be pinned on orientation alone, but the restriction shows what the new test has changed.

This time, horizontal video is part of the format from the start. Reels supply a route into the full program, and Instagram has TV apps where it wants longer viewing to develop. IGTV asked people to spend time in a separate long-video product with a fixed viewing shape. The current test starts with a clip in a familiar feed, then offers a longer version suited to a wider screen.

The comparison has a boundary. IGTV's shutdown does not predict the fate of Features, and correcting one design constraint does not solve every reason someone might stop watching. Instagram has given orientation, discovery and access to a full episode more direct answers than IGTV offered. Viewers still have to want the episode after the excerpt ends.

Who Pays for the Full Episode?

The viewer's next tap is only one side of the transaction. A creator has to make or bring over the full episode, cut clips that can travel through Reels and decide where that work is most valuable. Instagram currently does not plan a YouTube-style revenue-sharing program to compensate creators for posting the longer videos.

That does not leave every creator with zero ways to earn. Creators in the test can keep existing advertising deals and do not have to make their videos exclusive to Instagram. Meta also plans to help creators find brand partnerships. For someone with a sponsor and a finished episode, an additional place to show it could be attractive even without a platform revenue share. For someone deciding where to invest in a new show, the absence of that share is a different calculation.

The contrast with YouTube is therefore narrower than a contest over maximum video length. Instagram is trying to connect discovery, full-length viewing and TV access in one ecosystem. YouTube-style revenue sharing would address a separate question: what the platform pays when a creator's work holds attention there. A link can reduce the work required of a viewer; it cannot answer that question for the creator.

The test's early emphasis on podcasts and comedians makes sense: both can produce a full program and cut moments from it for Reels. The format gives those moments somewhere to lead. But the strongest use case for an established show may differ from the economics of building one primarily for Instagram. A nonexclusive upload lets a creator try the distribution route without making that larger commitment. It also means Instagram may benefit from programs whose production budgets depend on deals or audiences elsewhere.

Watch what follows the clip. Viewers tapping through and staying would suggest Instagram has improved a journey IGTV struggled to offer. Creators continuing to upload full episodes would suggest some see value in the test; uploads alone would not show that the work is profitable or worth its production costs. Ninety minutes sets the ceiling. How many people want the whole show, and why creators keep supplying one, will determine what fills it.