Instagram said on October 26, 2026, that it was testing Features, a video format allowing creators to upload videos up to 90 minutes long. The company described testing in Brazil and plans for a small U.S. test, alongside a tool that would connect short clips with full-length videos.
The announcement sets out a role for longer uploads alongside Instagram Reels. It also leaves creator payments unresolved: Meta said it was too early to share a long-term monetization model for the format.
Short clips would connect to longer videos
Instagram described a companion test called “Clips as Reels,” which would let creators turn excerpts from longer videos into Reels. Those clips would link viewers to the full video, giving people a way to continue watching content they discovered in a shorter format.
The company also described an option for viewers to save a longer video for viewing through Instagram’s TV app. The mobile and television experiences form part of the same development effort, although Instagram head Adam Mosseri cautioned that supporting the different formats across both would take time.
Alongside Features and Clips as Reels, Instagram said it was working on improvements to Live video discovery and a hub on creators’ profiles for episodic Reels. The hub would bring together connected Reels as a series, adding another way to organize video beyond a single short clip or a full-length upload.
Reels retain a central role
Mosseri and Instagram vice president of product Tessa Lyons discussed the longer-video plans in a video announcement. Mosseri acknowledged that the approach represented a change in his position on the format.
“For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram,” Mosseri said.
He linked his earlier preference for shorter videos to sharing and direct messaging, saying formats such as Reels encouraged those interactions. Lyons described longer videos as a way for viewers to spend more time with creators and their work while keeping Reels central to Instagram.
“Reels is still going to be a core part of Instagram. But when you want to go deeper with the creators you love and the content that they’re creating, you should be able to do that on Instagram,” Lyons said.
Mosseri said the team wanted short-form and long-form video to support each other. He described plans to accommodate the formats on both mobile and TV and said Instagram was committed to that effort over the long term.
Longer video also has a history on the platform. In 2021, Instagram announced that it was combining IGTV and feed videos into a single format called Instagram Video. The Features proposal again puts longer uploads on the product agenda, this time alongside an explicit connection to Reels.
A creator payment model remains unsettled
Meta’s response on earnings stopped short of setting out a long-term payment structure for Features.
“It’s too early to share a long-term monetization model, but we’re exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives,” a Meta spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Meta expected creators to benefit over time from telling new stories, reaching new audiences and finding new partners.
Mosseri has described Instagram’s existing creator economy as relying primarily on payments from brands, with some creators also earning from fans. He said the platform had a small performance-based program but spent substantially more on it than it earned back, which he cited as a reason against expanding that program.
YouTube’s Partner Program offers an established advertising revenue-sharing arrangement. YouTube says eligible partners who accept its Watch Page Monetization Module and enable watch-page ads receive 55% of net revenue from ads displayed or streamed on their public watch-page videos.
In September 2025, YouTube said it had paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies globally over the preceding four years.
