Instagram app showing a horizontal long form video, the 90 minute videos now being tested as Features

Instagram is testing Features, horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes inside the app, alongside a companion test called Clips as Reels that turns a long video into short clips linking back to it. The test started in Brazil and is now opening to a small group in the US.

The part worth reading twice is not the 90 minutes. It is what Adam Mosseri said about why Instagram does not pay creators the way YouTube does, because that answer tells you where your money is still coming from.

What Features Actually Is

Until now, video on Instagram meant short and vertical.

Features breaks both halves of that. Horizontal format, up to 90 minutes, built for the things that never fit a Reel: podcast episodes, vlogs, interviews, anything with a conversation in it.

Two companion pieces ship alongside it.

Clips as Reels lets a creator cut short clips out of the long video, and each clip links viewers through to the full Feature without leaving Instagram. And the longer video can be saved to the Instagram app on a TV, which is the first time the platform has treated a living room screen as somewhere its video belongs.

Instagram is also working on a hub on creator profiles for episodic Reels, meaning a connected series rather than scattered uploads.

Why This Is Not IGTV Again

Instagram already tried long video. IGTV launched in 2018 and was eventually shut down, which is why the reflex among creators has been to shrug at this.

The difference this time is who is behind it.

“For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram.”
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram

That is the person who runs the platform, on camera, saying he spent years arguing the other way. He noted that shorter content like Reels drives more shares and DMs between users, which was his case against it. Tessa Lyons, Instagram’s VP of Product, pushed for the change and eventually won the argument.

A reversal from the executive who resisted it is a stronger signal than a launch from an executive who always wanted it.

The Money Question, in His Own Words

Here is the answer the headlines skipped.

Mosseri laid out the three ways a creator gets paid on the Colin and Samir Show: by the platform, by a fan, or by a brand. On Instagram, he said, it is primarily brands. Some people are paid by fans.

There is still a small performance-based program, and then he explained why it stays small:

“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.”
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram

That is unusually direct for a platform executive. It is also the most useful sentence in the whole story, because it tells you the brand deal is not a temporary arrangement while Instagram figures out payouts. The brand deal is the model.

For comparison, YouTube pays Partner Program creators 55% of the ad revenue their videos earn, and the company said last year it had paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the previous four years.

What Meta Said About Ads

Nothing committed, and not quite a no.

A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch it is too early to share a long-term monetization model, and that the company is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram, including performance-based incentives.

Read that alongside Mosseri’s capital-burning line and the picture is consistent. Ads inside 90-minute videos are plausible, because longer video simply has more room to place them than a 12-second Reel ever did. But there is no revenue share today, and Meta is funding some creators directly during the test instead.

Your Reel Just Became a Door

This is the practical change, and it lands whether or not you ever upload a 90-minute video.

Under Clips as Reels, a Reel stops being the destination and becomes the trailer. Somebody watches a clip, and the decision in front of them is whether to tap through to the full thing.

That decision gets made in the same second or two it has always been made in, using the same information it has always used: the hook, and the numbers sitting under the clip.

Views, likes, comments. They are read in the same glance as the first frame, by someone who has never heard of you, and they are what tells that person whether other people found this worth their time.

We have been running this since 2018, more than 795,000 orders for over 25,000 users, and the question clients put to us whenever a format changes is whether the old playbook still applies. On this one it applies more, not less, because a trailer is judged harder than a standalone clip. A standalone Reel asks for eight seconds. A trailer asks for ninety minutes.

Brands Are Reading the Same Numbers

Follow the Mosseri quote to its conclusion and you land here.

If the payer on Instagram is the brand rather than the platform, then the person deciding what you earn is a marketing manager opening your profile with your email still on screen.

They are not looking at a payout dashboard. They are looking at your follower figure, then at the views and likes under your recent posts, and working out whether your audience responds to you.

Our breakdown of what counts as a good engagement rate covers the ratios that get checked, and buying Instagram comments covers the one layer people read rather than count.

While the Test Is Still Small

Features is in a limited test. Clips as Reels is in a limited test. The TV app support is early. None of that is something you can switch on this week.

What you can do this week is set the numbers under the Reels you already have, so that the clips you are posting now are the ones people tap through on later.

Opening a free account takes an email address and puts the catalog in front of you, with the price, pace and targeting shown on each service listing. Location targeting works at country and region level, gender targeting is available on supporting services, and auto delivery on supported services covers new posts as you publish them, which is the setting that matters when you are cutting several clips from one recording.

Orders run on your public username or public post link. No password, no app authorisation, no login code.

Want to watch the delivery first? The 11 free social media tools are open now and run on the same service that fills a paid order.

FAQ

What are Instagram Features?

Features are horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes that creators can upload inside Instagram, built for podcasts, vlogs and interviews. They are in a limited test that started in Brazil and is now expanding to a small group in the US.

What is Clips as Reels?

A companion test that lets creators cut short clips out of a long Feature. Each clip posts as a Reel and links viewers through to the full video without leaving Instagram.

What did Adam Mosseri say about why Instagram does not pay creators like YouTube?

He said creators on Instagram are paid primarily by brands, some by fans, and that the platform’s small performance-based program spends more than it makes back, which is why it has not been scaled up. He described it as burning capital.

Does Instagram share ad revenue on long videos?

Not today. Meta told TechCrunch it is too early to share a long-term monetization model and that it is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram, including performance-based incentives. Some creators are being funded directly during the test.

How much does YouTube pay by comparison?

YouTube pays Partner Program creators 55% of the ad revenue their videos earn. The company said last year it had paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the previous four years.

Is this just IGTV again?

The format is similar, but the backing is not. Mosseri said publicly that he spent a long time arguing against long-form video on Instagram, and he is now behind the test, with Clips as Reels and TV app support built around it from the start.

What should I do with my Reels now?

Treat them as trailers. The numbers under a clip are read in the same glance as the first frame by people deciding whether to tap through, so keeping views, likes and comments in place on the clips you are already posting is the part you control today.

Instagram’s 90-Minute Videos: What Mosseri Actually Said