Instagram Tests ‘Features’ for Long-Form Widescreen Video
Instagram’s move into long-form video hinges on a social question as much as a format one: can longer stories fit without weakening the friend connections that define the app? Its answer, now in testing, is “Features,” a widescreen video format designed to work alongside Reels. That framing matters. Instagram isn’t simply adding another way to watch; it’s testing whether a different kind of viewing can belong in a service whose familiar habits are quick, frequent interactions between people.
Longer stories alongside Reels
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri and product VP Tessa Lyons introduced Features in a joint Instagram post. Mosseri said he’d opposed long-form content on the platform for a long time. Lyons sees a shift in how creators tell stories: “creativity is so much more than just short-form video, or just posts and carousels.” Together, their comments describe a change in how Instagram is thinking about format: short video still has a central role, but creators may want more room to develop an idea than a brief clip allows.
That change in creator behavior gives Instagram a reason to broaden its video formats. But Mosseri’s earlier concern still shapes the project: Instagram shouldn’t lose its “friend connection” as it adds longer viewing sessions. He says Features needs to be “symbiotic” with short-form video, and Lyons says Reels will remain “at the core” of the platform. The wording points to a product constraint, not just a branding choice. A longer video could give creators more time to tell a story, but it also asks viewers to spend more time watching and potentially less time reacting, sharing, or moving through the rest of the app.
That’s the tension Instagram will have to manage. Reels has an established role in the experience, while Features is still being tested. If the new format feels like a separate destination, users may need a reason to seek it out; if it sits within familiar viewing flows, it could compete for attention with the short videos it’s meant to complement. The company hasn’t described exactly how it’ll balance those possibilities.
TV viewing changes the social dynamic
Instagram is testing Features for its mobile app and its TV app, though Mosseri says wider availability will take time. The company also needs to work out how long-form video fits with other formats, including Live. Testing is expected to roll out over the next month, with Instagram planning to expand access and gather feedback as it goes. That staged approach gives the company a chance to observe how the format behaves in more than one setting, though the early experience may not answer every question about how it’ll work at broader scale.
The TV app makes the social tradeoff more visible. Announced in late 2025 through a Meta and Amazon Fire TV collaboration, Instagram for TV lets people sign in to as many as five accounts and browse a Reels-focused feed on a larger screen. That experience has a different kind of engagement: when people watch together in a room, they may share fewer videos, like less, and mention friends less often. The change in setting matters because many familiar social actions are built around an individual holding a phone and sending something to someone else. A television can make watching feel more collective while making those individual actions less immediate.
And yet a shared screen could also give longer video a more natural place. A story that benefits from a wider image or a longer stretch of attention may suit a television viewing session better than a quick scroll on a phone. That doesn’t mean the format will automatically work there. Instagram still has to make the content easy to find and give viewers a reason to stay, while preserving the social cues that make the service distinct from passive video viewing.
(And this is the part most people overlook.) A format can succeed as a viewing experience while doing less for the social behavior around it. If people watch together but share fewer clips or mention friends less often, the video may hold attention while contributing less to the connections Instagram says it wants to protect. That’s a meaningful product distinction, even if the company hasn’t yet shared results from its testing.
What Features will have to prove
Features will have to work across both individual and shared viewing. Mosseri describes the effort as early, saying Instagram is “testing and listening to feedback as we go.” The format’s progress will depend on whether longer videos can earn a place in the feed while Reels and interaction among friends continue to anchor the experience. Instagram has set out the design ambition, but the test will show whether viewers and creators find the new format useful in practice.
This is more significant than it looks. Adding a video length or screen shape is a visible product change; deciding how that format affects discovery, attention, and interaction is the harder work underneath. Similar platform changes often depend on how well the new option fits existing user habits, rather than on the format alone. Instagram’s stated aim is for Features to support Reels, but that relationship will have to be clear to users as they move between them.
If you’re working in this space, the useful question is whether longer viewing can coexist with active social use, rather than simply increase time spent watching. Instagram’s own comments suggest it knows that distinction matters. The company will need feedback from both creators, who may want more room to tell stories, and viewers, whose expectations differ between a phone and a shared screen.
One open question: where does Live fit? Instagram says it’s still working through the relationship between formats, so the answer isn’t settled. The test may clarify how Features appears alongside Reels and Live, and whether people treat the formats as complementary choices or competing ways to spend time. For now, the premise is clear; the user behavior isn’t.
Features is still an experiment. Its longer-term value will depend on whether people choose it for reasons that fit Instagram’s social character, not just because a wider video is available. A format that serves creators but weakens sharing would leave the company with a difficult tradeoff. Instagram’s test is meant to find out whether it can avoid that outcome.
