In its latest bid to take over the Internet Instagram has announced IGTV, a long-form vertical video platform that will run in full screen. With IGTV the social media app is aiming to takeover the likes of Youtube, which dominate the original content video world. Instagram has launched IGTV as a free separate app in the App Store.
IGTV will feature curated content from creators that users already follow on Instagram. The IGTV app will start playing the video content as soon as user launches it, without requiring them to send browse or perform any other action. They can of course browse available content by swiping up and access the ‘For You’, ‘Following’ and ‘Popular’ sections.
As with other Instagram posts, users will be able to like, comment and share IGTV videos. They can play video from the next creator by tapping on the right side of the screen, just like they can when viewing stories from the accounts they follow.
Unlike Stories feature on Instagram, the IGTV videos can be of longer length and stay on the platform permanently.
With the introduction of IGTV app, Instagram highlights that almost 80 percent of today’s Internet traffic comes from mobile devices, giving creators on Instagram a huge audience to tap into. The company says its long-form video platform will allow creators to “get closer to your audience and be discovered by new people”.
- Download IGTV
