Meta-owned photo sharing platform instagram Instagram is shutting down its standalone app for TV (IGTV) and will instead focus on keeping all videos on the main Instagram app. The IGTV app, which was launched as a competitor to YouTube’s Instagram, was not able to gain the popularity that the company had hoped for when the app was first launched back in 2018. Now, though, that’s the end of Instagram’s foray into longer videos.
Instagram said in its blog post that the company is getting rid of the standalone IGTV app, as “part of its efforts to make video as simple and possible as possible to find and create videos.” The blog post also states that the video in the main app is a full-screen viewer with tap-to-mute, and the company is also working on a way to make video sharing and viewing easier. Instagram is also planning to “test a feature that will bring ads to the reels.” Instagram’s parent company Meta confirmed the closure of the IGTV app and was quoted by TechCrunch that the app will be completely shut down in mid-March.
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The IGTV app was launched back in 2018 and was meant to be a competitor to YouTube for vertical video. The Instagram app also had an IGTV button that took users to IGTV content on the main app, but Instagram removed that button in 2020 saying that few people use it, and last year, the company announced It was reported that the name of IGTV is being changed to “Instagram TV”. The company also said that it plans to bring IGTV’s hourly time limit to regular video as well.
Ads known as IGTV commercials inserted in videos that last longer than a minute have also been taken off the platform and the company has said it wants to focus heavily on the videos. It was stated by the company last year that it is no longer a photo-sharing app.
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In its announcement, Instagram also shifted its focus to short form videos, Reels. The company said that reels will continue to be the biggest contributor to the engagement growth on the app and the company plans to continue investing in reels. “The reel continues to be a growing and important part of Instagram and we are excited to invest even more in this format,” Instagram said in a blog post.
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