Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram has stated that the social media platform will not focus on long-form videos now or in the future. The Instagram Head says that the platform will maintain its short-form video content form.

Mosseri says short-form videos can help users connect with their friends and family and even dive deeper into their interests. The Instagram Head says these two functions are ‘symbiotic’ as users usually send a video or ‘reel’ to someone on their following list who might enjoy the same content. 

Furthermore, he states that long-form videos feel less symbiotic as users have fewer chances of sending the video to their friends. Long-form videos mean users will see less content from their friends. Thus, they will be less interested in sending videos to their friends. Instagram does not intend to go that route so the platform is maintaining to keep its focus on short-form videos. 

Adam Mosseri and the background behind the statement 

However, the statement comes only after the platform’s previous attempts at pushing for long-form content. Users can still post hour-long videos on their accounts and there has been an attempt made by Instagram specifically to push towards long-form videos. 

IGTV was a tab on Instagram that was made for long-form videos. The app was available for both Android and iOS.

IGTV automatically recommended videos for users and was said to be made for easy viewing on mobile. But IGTV was quite shortlived as Instagram took the feature down after three years. The feature’s failure could come down to a general lack of interest from Instagram users. 

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