Instagram rolled out a tool called Features this week, opening its feed to horizontal video up to ninety minutes long. To make sure someone actually watches them, the app is adding Clips as Reels, letting creators cut snippets from the master file and funnel mobile scrollers directly into the full ninety-minute upload.
According to Tessa Lyons, Instagram’s VP of Product, the move stems from pure domestic romance: “We’ve been hearing for a long time that people love to watch Reels together in their living rooms with their friends, so we’ve been working on a TV version of Reels.” Adam Mosseri even chimed in to note the short and long formats will now be “symbiotic.”
Sure. Let's call it that.
Here is how that symbiosis works at the cash register. YouTube built a living room empire because its Partner Program sends 55 percent of long-form ad dollars directly back to the channel that produced the footage. That check pays for the camera package, the studio lease, and the editor cutting ninety minutes of podcast audio.
Instagram, meanwhile, is entering the living room with a slightly different payout structure. When asked how creators make money from ninety-minute uploads, a Meta spokesperson explained that “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.”
That is corporate phrasing for zero dollars on the dashboard. Meta is asking creators to finance feature-length production so its sales team can pitch connected-TV ad packages to Madison Avenue, while offering creators “compounding benefits” and the privilege of finding their own brand sponsors.
Eight years ago, Instagram launched IGTV with the exact same promise of longer videos, the same missing ad split, and the same quiet fade into the background. The ninety-minute upload limit is real. The revenue engine is still just a YouTube link in your bio.