SAY good bye to the ugly cropped videos.
Instagram’s video platform, IGTV, will now feature videos in landscape view along with its traditional portrait format. The addition of horizontal videos isn’t just a new feature for IGTV -- it’s a shift in the product’s original purpose, which was a feature focus during its launch nearly a year ago.
Instagram said the change came because of creator feedback and because some viewers are finding landscape videos on IGTV already but haven’t been able to turn their phones to watch them in full screen.
“We realize this is an evolution from where IGTV started — we believe it’s the right change for viewers and creators,” the company says in a blog post. “In many ways, opening IGTV to more than just vertical videos is similar to when we opened Instagram to more than just square photos in 2015. It enabled creativity to flourish and engagement to rise — and we believe the same will happen again with IGTV.”
IGTV has struggled to make waves in the cultural conversation, particularly compared to other applications like TikTok, which has spawned memes, discussion, and music hits.
It clearly shows that most online content creators aren’t interested in IGTV before. But with this development, they seem to be pretty much pleased, although they also noted that they haven’t been able to monetize their content yet. Unlike YouTube, Instagram doesn’t have an ad placement service that pays creators, and brands haven’t yet started paying creators to make long-form IGTV content.
Part of the struggle to publish on IGTV was the vertical video optimization. For creators who publish primarily on YouTube, moving to IGTV means creating a separate cut of their content or filming it in a different way to make the video display properly. That’s extra work for little return.
Although Instagram is giving up an integral part of the IGTV brand by sacrificing the vertical video, it might encourage creators to cross-post their content across various platforms, if nothing else, and thereby boost IGTV’s offerings.
--oo0oo--
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