Out Goes IGTV; In Comes Instagram Videos!

Instagram has been playing toe-to-toe against other video streaming platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, but up till now Instagram was having the disadvantage of different types of video post formats, namely IGTV, Feed Videos and the latest addition, Reels. But now that is old news!

So what’s new?

• Instagram has ditched IGTV and feed video formats, combining it under Instagram Video.
• A new Video tab is introduced on the profile, making it easier for you to discover new videos.
• New features like trimming, filters and people and location tagging have been added.
• Video previews in feed will now be 60 seconds long, unless the video is eligible for ads — in which case, the preview will still be 15 seconds.
• You can tap anywhere on the video to enter into a full screen viewing mode.
• Reels remains unchanged.

What does it mean for content creators and brands?

• Creators can continue to cross-post their videos through Stories and share via direct message.
• Feed post insights and video insights are being merged into one combined metric, making it easier to understand how videos are performing.
• IGTV Ads will now be called Instagram In-Stream video ads, where creators can continue to monetize their long-form content.
• Brands can continue with long-form videos but businesses interested in boosting their videos will have to stick to a duration of 60 seconds.

In Conclusion

Facebook claims this is intended to make the process of creating Instagram videos easier. And from what we can see, it certainly has become easier for both the audience and the creators to create, watch and analyze videos. But how it fares against the other video sharing platforms is yet to be seen.