First, Instagram declared war on Snapchat when it introduced its Insta-stories, and now, the Facebook-owned photo and video sharing platform found itself a new competitor, Youtube! By unveiling IGTV, a new standalone long-form video app, last Wednesday, Instagram was clearly igniting the first spark of a tough competition. More or less, the whole idea for Instagram is unexpected and people all around the world are intrigued. So to answer all your questions and clear the confusion, here’s everything you need to know about the app.
For starters, IGTV will allow users to produce 4k vertical videos that are not longer than 60 seconds. This way, Instagram is leaving room for creators to flourish. Nevertheless, only verified accounts and those with a larger amount of followers will be able to upload the 60-second videos. Regular users can currently upload videos that are between 15 seconds to 10 minutes in length but this limit is expected to change or even be removed over time.
Also keep in mind that both apps; IGTV and the Instagram original app, will be connected. In other words, when you log in to your IGTV, you’ll be viewing your following’s long videos on your news feed, however, with a slightly different interface. The app features tabs like For You; pretty much like the Explore tab, Following, Popular, and Continue Watching; where you’ll get to watch unfinished videos where you left off. You can also create your very own channel!
So far, there are no ads popping all over the app. Instagram is rather focusing on engagement and interactivity with users at this point. However, it’s expected for the advertising time to come in the future. “There will be a way for creators to make a living,” Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom, said.