Instagram says IGTV will now support landscape video, following feedback from creators and users, as the service struggles to gain traction
but still no ads Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today : Instagram Adds Support for Landscape Videos in IGTV Josh Constine / TechCrunch : Instagram's vertical IGTV surrenders to landscape status quo Brittany A. Roston / SlashGear : Instagram's IGTV now supports horizontal videos Abhay Venkatesh / Neowin : Instagram adds support for landscape videos on IGTV Michael Allison / MSPoweruser : Instagram makes IGTV a little less like Snapchat with horizontal video Tweets: @itsjeffhiggins : “Screw it, we're done trying. Just cross-post all your shit.” - IGTV https://twitter.com/... Chris Welch / @chriswelch : Going 90 is always the right way https://twitter.com/... Adam Hlavac / @adamhlavac : I'm all for this. There's an opportunity to present certain content in the original way it was intended to be seen while allowing other types of content to exist as a vertical. https://www.theverge.com/... Pat Muldowney / @patmuldowney : I still believe there's a strong future for fully produced vertical video optimized for mobile, but I also believe you have to give creators and the audience time to adapt. This is a smart and important pivot by Instagram. https://instagram-press.com/ ... Taylor Loren / @taylrn : so much for vertical video being the future? https://instagram-press.com/ ... Ashley Carman / @ashleyrcarman : instagram now supports landscape video on IGTV, which is a huge concession. vertical video was IGTV's THING, and this is basically saying that they realize everyone wants to just port their youtube videos over to insta & not make exclusive insta content https://www.theverge.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Instagram's IGTV app now supports landscape videos. I guess the whole IGTV experiment hasn't worked out well https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jack Appleby / @juiceboxca : Smart for IGTV to backtrack on the vertical focus. There was never value in demanding users to make long-form vertical content. https://instagram-press.com/ ... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
When Instagram launched IGTV in June 2018 as a hub for high-profile creators, vertical-only video was the product's entire thesis — a deliberate break from the horizontal norms of YouTube. Within two months the format was already under strain, with coverage documenting slow growth as creators and Instagram itself struggled to make long-form vertical work.
This announcement is the capitulation point in that arc: landscape support arrives framed as a response to creator and user feedback, effectively conceding that the vertical constraint was suppressing supply rather than defining a new category. The description notes ads are still absent, so the monetization question remains open even as the format barrier falls.
First-order effects
- Creators no longer need to shoot or reformat separate vertical cuts for IGTV — existing horizontal catalogs become uploadable overnight, directly addressing the friction documented in the service's early struggles.
- Instagram's differentiation pitch to high-profile creators collapses: IGTV is now a conventional long-form video host competing on distribution rather than format.
Second-order effects
- With the format excuse removed, YouTube-style creators face pressure to cross-post to IGTV, while YouTube loses one of the few structural arguments for keeping long-form content exclusive to its own platform.
- Instagram still has no ad revenue share on IGTV, so the burden shifts to building audience scale first — the same sequencing YouTube used, but from a decade behind.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, format exclusivity proves unsustainable as a moat for video platforms: the corpus shows Instagram still experimenting with horizontal video on connected TVs years later (horizontal testing on Instagram for TV), suggesting the vertical experiment ends not with a pivot but with full convergence on landscape long-form.
- Platform strategy increasingly treats creator workflow compatibility as non-negotiable — formats that force extra production work get abandoned regardless of how central they were at launch.
The trend: Video platforms are abandoning format-differentiation experiments whenever they tax creator supply, converging on landscape long-form as the default grammar of online video.