After smartphones, Instagram bets big on TVs with horizontal videos, episodic series and live programming

Instagram has expanded its TV app to Samsung devices and is testing more viewing features. The move signals a broader push into social television, live formats and episodic creator content.

In Short

• Instagram expands its TV app to more devices
• The app will test long videos and episodic series
• Meta sees television as Instagram's next big opportunity

For years, Instagram has lived inside smartphones. But now, after conquering the small screen, Instagram wants to move to a much bigger one: the television. The company has expanded Instagram for TV to Samsung TV devices, a move that comes months after it launched a TV app for Reels in partnership with Amazon Fire TV. The app was previously available only on Amazon Fire and Google TV products.

And it isn't stopping there.

Instagram wants to make TV viewing more social

The company is gradually bringing more familiar Instagram features to televisions. Users will now be able to watch Stories, the limited-time posts that appear at the top of Instagram feeds, on their TVs. Instagram is also testing horizontal videos on TVs. The feature is aimed at making content easier to watch on larger screens while giving creators another way to reach viewers. Instagram is also testing a feature that lets users cast Reels directly from their phones to the television.

"The features we’re testing today are designed to make discovering, sharing, and enjoying Instagram easier with the people around you," Instagram's parent company Meta said in a blog post.

The company is also experimenting with longer-form storytelling and episodic series with creators. On top of that, it is testing live TV creator experiences as it looks to make the app more appealing to television audiences.

“As we continue to learn from our community, we’re exploring more formats built for the living room and aim to start rolling them out soon,” Meta wrote.

The TV app supports up to five accounts, allowing family members and friends to switch between their own feeds and recommendations tailored to their interests.

Television is Instagram's "next frontier"

Instagram Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons believes television could become the app's next big growth area.

"Ultimately Instagram is all about connecting people around creativity. We're all about helping creators find their audiences and we're constantly evolving how we do that in order to meet their needs," Lyons told The Hollywood Reporter.

"And I really think that TV is in so many ways the next frontier of that for us."

From short videos to TV-style dramas

Perhaps the most interesting change is Instagram's push into longer stories. The platform, which became famous for photos and short videos, now wants creators to make episodic videos and microdramas, formats that have traditionally belonged to television. Today, many microdramas are produced by professional studios and production houses. But Instagram believes independent creators can thrive in this format too.

"Today a lot of them are produced by production houses and that's cool and there's going to be a role for that," Lyons said.

"But we also think there's an incredibly compelling opportunity for creators themselves to create in this format. And for a lot of the shortform content creators who are Instagram-native, it's a very accessible way to get into telling longer and more episodic stories."

That shift says a lot about where Instagram sees its future. The app that once encouraged users to post square photos is now experimenting with TV screens, live programming and serialised storytelling.

- Ends