Bored of just sharing pictures and stories on Instagram? Well, here’s good news. You can now upload videos, of as long as 10 minutes’ duration, on your favourite networking app!
The company, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012, has launched a new app for long-form video, called IGTV, which will also exist as a tab on Instagram’s existing app.
The latest move is being seen as a major step by Instagram to take over the world of video, especially the YouTube.
The new app is available to both Android and iOS users. For now, anyone can upload a video of 10 minutes or less via IGTV but users with more than 10,000 followers aka Instagram ‘influencers’ can post 60 minute long videos, a massive upgrade from its current 60 seconds limit, for everyone.
The orientation of these videos has been kept vertical, considering major takers for the app will be smartphone users.
IGTV videos will all be prerecorded, not live. Although the company will be focusing on ‘live content’ in the coming times.
In terms of monetization, IGTV is not charging it’s users and there are no ads. However, bringing in advertisers is definately on the cards, Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom revealed. He said, that the app is now ‘a global community of a billion monthly actives!’.
Fashion influencers Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian and Virgil Abloh are already being touted as the first few adopters of IGTV.
The feature is fairly unique and seems to face Google’s mammoth video site, YouTube. However, IGTV may take some time to spread ripples as most users are still used to watching and creating horizontal content on sites like Netflix and others.
