As video-podcasts and episodic content become more popular across the social media landscape, Instagram has begun testing a long-form horizontal video initiative called “Features,”
which runs on both mobile and TV.
Targeting podcasters, comedians, and other long-form creators, Features allows video uploads up to 90 minutes long. Having already tested the format in
Brazil, Instagram is now expanding the test to tens of thousands of creators in the U.S.
Creators included in the U.S. testing phase currently include podcast host and Skims co-founder Emma
Grede, fashion creator Monet McMichael, on-the-street New York City interviewer Preston Rakovsky, and Donald De La Haye, a football content creator.
In a recent conversation, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Tess Lyons, vice president of product, said the company has been working on “a TV
version of Reels,” and “to do that well, we know we need more than just short-form video.”
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Features marks Instagram’s attempt at strengthening the relationship between
short-form and long-form content across various viewing experiences, such as Instagram for TV, a large-screen format launched last year with Samsung, Fire TV, Google TV, and, more recently, Apple TV
in the U.S.
“We are trying to make it so that this short-form and the long-form video can be symbiotic,” Mosseri said, combining “long video, which you might sit back
and enjoy, and the short videos which are really stackable and maybe easier to just consume on the go.”
“So many creators are producing longer videos and they’re using clips
of those videos to drive discovery on Reels,” Lyons added.
Podcasts and episodic online content are more popular now than ever before. Over the past year, Meta,TikTok and YouTube have rolled out features to incentivize creators and brands to develop
and share long-form, episodic series.
Specifically, soap opera-style microdramas have become a hit on TikTok, generating $1.3 billion in the U.S. last year via direct payments from viewers,
according to a Business Insider report.
On YouTube, microdramas surpassed 6.5 billion views over the first half of
2026, with watch time increasing by over 50% year-over-year and views of microdrama content on TV growing over 90% year-over-year.
The podcast market, by contrast, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of almost 20% between now and 2030 in the U.S. alone.
According to
The Hollywood Reporter, Instagram plans on working with creators
to find brand partners
Specifically, soap opera-style microdramas have become a hit on TikTok, generating $1.3 billion in the U.S. last year via direct payments from viewers, according to a
Business Insider report.
On YouTube, microdramas surpassed 6.5 billion views over the first half of
2026, with watch time increasing by over 50% year-over-year and views of microdrama content on TV growing over 90% year-over-year.
The podcast market, by contrast, is expected to
grow at a compound annual growth rate of almost 20% between now and 2030 in the U.S. alone.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Instagram plans to work with content
creators to find brand partners, especially if they don’t have current advertiser relationships.