Instagram tests 90-minute 'Features' videos, taking aim at YouTube's creator payouts

Instagram tests 90-minute uploads

Instagram is testing a new kind of video upload, called "Features," that lets creators publish videos up to 90 minutes long. According to TechCrunch, the company announced the test on Monday. The trial is already running in Brazil and is now being extended to a small group of users in the United States.

The move is a sharp change of direction for a platform that, like most of its competitors, has spent recent years chasing short vertical video. It also revives an old ambition: roughly eight years ago Instagram pushed longer uploads through IGTV, a product it later shut down.

A change of heart at the top

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has openly opposed long-form video on the platform in the past, arguing that shorter clips such as Reels drive more sharing and direct messaging between users. According to TechCrunch, Mosseri shifted position after product vice president Tessa Lyons advocated for the change. Lyons said Reels will remain central to Instagram, but that people who want to go deeper with a creator's work should be able to do so inside the app rather than elsewhere.

The money gap with YouTube

The competitive stakes are largely financial. As TechCrunch points out, creators with large followings generally earn the most on YouTube, where the Partner Program gives enrolled creators 55 percent of the ad revenue their videos generate. YouTube said last year that it had paid out more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the previous four years.

Instagram's economics look different. Speaking on the Colin and Samir Show, an interview program about the creator economy, Mosseri described three ways creators get paid: by the platform, by fans, or by brands. On Instagram, brand deals dominate, some creators earn from fans, and a small performance-based program exists but loses money. Mosseri said the company spends far more on that program than it earns back, which is why it has not been scaled up.

Short-form video is also structurally harder to monetize than long-form, since there is less room to insert ads. Many creators now treat Instagram and TikTok accounts mainly as promotional channels that funnel audiences toward YouTube, where the actual revenue lives.

Monetization plans remain vague

Whether Instagram will build a revenue-sharing program of its own is still unresolved. A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch it is too early to share a long-term monetization model, but that the company is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram itself, including performance-based incentives. TechCrunch reads the response as neither a commitment nor a rejection.

Given that Meta's core business is advertising, inserting ads into longer videos would be the obvious way to fund such a program, though the company has not confirmed any plans.

Pairing short and long content

Alongside Features, Instagram is testing a tool called "Clips as Reels," which lets creators cut short Reels from their longer videos. Those Reels then point viewers to the full upload, and users can save longer videos to send to Instagram's TV app. The platform is also working on better discovery for Live video and a hub on creator profiles for episodic Reels, meaning connected series similar to TikTok's playlist feature.

Mosseri said the goal is to make short-form and long-form video reinforce each other across both the mobile and TV apps. He acknowledged that getting this right will take time, but said the company is committed to it over the long term.

Why it matters

YouTube has held an effectively unchallenged position as the most lucrative platform for creators, and its ad revenue split is the benchmark every competitor is measured against. Instagram brings enormous distribution, and Meta brings the advertising machinery that could fund a comparable payout model. If long-form Features videos eventually carry ads and revenue sharing, creators gain a genuine alternative to YouTube and more leverage over where they publish. If monetization stays vague, Features risks going the way of IGTV — another long-form experiment that never found a business model.