Instagram Tests 90-Minute Videos in Direct Challenge to YouTube

Instagram announced on Monday that it's testing a new upload format called "Features," letting creators post videos up to 90 minutes long — a direct shot at YouTube's dominance in long-form creator monetization.

The move reverses years of strategy. Every major platform, including LinkedIn, has chased short-form vertical video through the 2020s. Instagram itself killed IGTV, its previous long-form product launched eight years ago. Now it's asking creators to upload long videos again.

The economics explain why. Short-form clips are hard to monetize because there's little room for ads. Instagram head Adam Mosseri laid out the problem bluntly on the Colin and Samir Show, an interview program about the creator economy.

"You can get paid by the platform directly, you can get paid by a fan, and you can get paid by a brand," Mosseri said. "And right now, the way that it works on Instagram primarily is you primarily get paid by brands. Some people get paid by fans. We have 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."

Why YouTube still pays creators better

YouTube's model is simpler. Creators enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program collect 55% of the ad revenue their videos generate. YouTube said last year it paid out more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the previous four years.

Instagram and TikTok haven't replicated that with short clips. Many creators treat their accounts on those platforms as promotional arms for their YouTube channels rather than meaningful revenue drivers. Meta, which makes its billions on advertising, could change that by placing ads inside long-form Instagram videos — though it hasn't committed to it yet.

"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. "Over time, we think there will be compounding benefits for creators to tell new stories, reach new audiences, and find new partners, which should lead to many monetization opportunities."

That's not a firm answer. It's also not a no.

Who pushed the reversal?

Mosseri admitted he resisted long-form video for years, arguing shorter content like Reels drives more shares and DMs among users.

"For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram," Mosseri said in a video announcement. Instagram VP of Product Tessa Lyons, who advocated for the change, convinced him to give the format another shot.

"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," Lyons said in the same video.

The strategic logic: Instagram would rather keep fans watching both short and long videos from a creator on its own app than lose them to YouTube.

What's in the test?

Instagram is pairing "Features" with several supporting tools:

• Clips as Reels — creators can cut Reels from their long-form videos, with each Reel linking back to the full upload.
• TV playback — viewers can save long videos and send them to the Instagram app on their TV.
• Live discovery improvements — better ways to find Instagram Live streams.
• Episodic Reels hub — a section on a creator's profile for series of connected Reels, similar to TikTok's playlist feature.

Instagram is testing "Features" and "Clips as Reels" in Brazil and is now expanding the test to the U.S. in a small rollout.

Mosseri framed the two formats as mutually reinforcing rather than competing. "The thing that the team has been working on that we're excited to share with you is trying to make it so that the short-form and the long-form video can be symbiotic," he said. "We're going to try to support these different types of formats, both in the mobile app, but also on the TV app, which I think is . . . going to take some time to get right. But I'm actually very excited about it, and we're very committed to it long term."

Instagram's last long-form bet, IGTV, failed. This one has a monetization roadmap behind it and a TV strategy attached — and a $100 billion YouTube payout pool to chase.