Everyone remember’s IGTV as Instagram’s attempt to tackle the longer-form video market. However, it didn’t go how the company planned, and this is why Instagram officially discontinued the standalone IGTV app. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the company moved IGTV videos to the main app a while back.
Instagram discontinued the IGTV standalone app
When IGTV came out, it was going up against YouTube and the fledgling TikTok (Musical.ly at the time). This Instagram’s foray into the long-form video market, and, while it had an audience, most people preferred to post their minute-long Instagram videos. However, the company continued to offer the service through TikTok’s explosion in popularity.
Now, according to a blog post by Instagram, the company has discontinued the standalone IGTV app, which puts an end to the service as a whole. A lot of people could see this coming from a mile away. IGTV was never able to capture the market the way it hoped. The majority of people who use Instagram do so to either post photos or short videos. They leave their longer videos for YouTube.
Also, the company announced some changes coming to Instagram video last year. This resulted in Instagram moving IGTV videos to the main video feed and letting you watch them in the main app. Being able to watch and scrub through longer videos in the Instagram app really negates the need to have a standalone app. Now that Instagram discontinued the standalone IGTV app, it can focus on other aspects of Instagram video and Instagram Reels.
Instagram Reels will start showing ads
Speaking of Instagram Reels, Instagram will start showing ads on the Reels feed. In case you didn’t know, Instagram Reels is the company’s answer to TikTok. It shows you a vertical scrolling feed of short portrait videos. While it’s not as big as TikTok, it was able to get a better audience than IGTV.
Now, the company is going to start displaying ads in the feed. We’re not sure if these ads will be skippable or if they will stop the feed for five seconds. It could be a mix of both like with Snapchat. While ads aren’t great news for viewers, it is for creators. Because of this, people who make Reels will be able to make ad revenue for their videos. This move will definitely entice people to make more content for the platform. We don’t know just when these ads will pop up, but they will be up and running before the year is out.
2022-03-02 15:08:19