Instagram is officially shutting down its IGTV standalone app, announcing that it is ending its support for its separate long-form video platform.
A picture taken on October 18, 2021 in Moscow shows the US social network Instagram's logo on a tablet screen. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
As per a news story by The Verge, Instagram said in a blog post that the social media giant is ending its support for its separate long-form video app to focus on bringing all videos to its main app.
Instagram's IGTV App
The standalone app of Insta, known as the IGTV, first saw the light of day way back in 2018, which back then was supposed to rival the reigning video sharing platform of Google, YouTube.
Like YouTube, IGTV allows its users to publish long-form video content, giving them a chance to monetize from it.
A year after the launch of the separate IGTV app, Instagram decided to promote the long video content on the standalone platform to its main app, showing them on the explore section, as well as the stories and feeds of its users.
This illustration picture shows Instagram's new video feature "Reels" on a smartphone in front of a screen showing an Instagram logo, on August 6, 2020 in Los Angeles. - Instagram on August 5 added a new short-form video feature to the image-focused platform in a direct challenge to TikTok. "Reels" lets users record videos of up to 15 seconds and provides tools for editing, audio and effects, according to the Facebook-owned company.
But in 2020, Instagram has already removed the IGTV button on its main app, wherein the social media giant admitted that it did not have a lot of users, to begin with.
As such, in 2021, Insta went on to announce that it is throwing away the IGTV branding, which has been replaced with "Instagram TV."
On top of that, Insta is bringing the one-hour-long video limit, which used to be exclusively available on IGTV, to the regular videos on the main app.
Instagram Kills IGTV App
This time around, according to a recent report by Social Media Today, Instagram has officially said that it is ending its support for the separate IGTV app.
The Meta-owned social media platform said that its latest move seeks to simplify its video offerings to its users.
Instagram specifically said that it is part of its "efforts to make video as simple as possible to discover and create."
Thus, the social media platform "will no longer be supporting" IGTV's standalone app.
On top of that, the Meta-owned social media network vowed that some of the features of IGTV would be coming to the main app. For instance, both the tap-to-mute and full-screen viewer will be available in all of the videos on the main app of Instagram.
Read Also: Instagram Badges, a Feature That Lets You Pay Creators, Can Now Be Used on the Platform
IGTV In-Stream Ads
Along with the demise of the IGTV app, Instagram is also retiring its in-stream video ads, wherein some content creators on IGTV use it as a monetization tool.
In lieu of its retirement, Instagram is reportedly releasing more ads options for its short-form video section, Reels.
Related Article: IGTV and Feed Videos Gets Merged Into One | Introducing the New Instagram Video Tab Feature
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Teejay Boris
