Instagram unveils Features, 90-minute videos aimed at YouTube: what teams should plan

Siècle Digital reports that Instagram head Adam Mosseri and vice-president Tessa Lyons have unveiled a new video format called Features, which allows videos of up to 90 minutes. The publication describes the format as coming soon and frames it as a direct challenge to YouTube. We could only consult the article's summary: it gives no launch date, no country rollout, no monetisation terms and no ad formats. This analysis treats those points as unknown.

A longer format, with the rules still unknown

As context, Instagram built its video audience on Reels: short vertical clips consumed in a feed and largely recommended to people who do not follow the account. YouTube remains the reference platform for long videos, search-driven viewing and an established revenue share for creators. A 90-minute ceiling brings Instagram onto YouTube's ground on duration. Whether it also competes on discovery and on pay is what matters for acquisition and monetisation, and that has not been disclosed.

Three open questions decide whether Features matters to a marketing team:

• How Features videos are distributed: in the main feed, in a separate space, or through recommendations to people who do not follow the account.
• Whether creators are paid, and how: revenue share, ad breaks, subscriptions, or nothing at launch.
• Whether advertisers get placements inside or around long videos, and with what targeting and measurement.

Until these are answered, moving budget toward the format would be a bet on assumptions.

What it could change for acquisition and monetisation

As general industry knowledge, long videos work differently from short ones. A short clip earns reach. A long one earns attention and trust, which is why tutorials, product demos, webinars, interviews and documentaries perform on YouTube for products with a considered purchase. If Features receives real distribution, brands whose audience already spends its time on Instagram could host that deeper content where the audience is, instead of sending it to another platform and losing part of it on the way.

For creator partnerships, a longer format changes the unit of purchase. An integration in a 40-minute video is closer to a sponsored YouTube episode than to a Reel, with different pricing, briefs and usage rights. Contracts written around Reels and Stories may not cover it.

For creators and media brands who monetise their own audience, the question is simpler: a format only becomes a revenue line if the platform shares revenue or lets them sell inside it. Nothing published so far says whether Features will do either.

What to prepare this week

None of this requires a budget decision. A team can start with what it already owns.

Inventory existing long-form assets: webinars, demos, interviews, customer stories, recorded talks. Note which ones hold up on a phone screen as they are and which would need a new edit, captions or a vertical crop.

Look at the YouTube analytics for those videos. Average view duration and retention curves show where viewers drop off, and they remain the best available indicator of how a long video holds attention, whatever the platform.

Review creator contracts for wording on formats and durations, so that a future long-form integration on Instagram is not governed by default terms written for 30-second content.

Then watch for Instagram's official specifications: availability, where the videos appear, monetisation and ad inventory. Those details, more than the 90-minute figure, will decide whether Features becomes an acquisition channel or remains one more upload option.