Instagram shuts down its YouTube competitor IGTV app for long form videos, here's why

New Delhi: Instagram, owned by Meta, is discontinuing its standalone app for Instagram TV (IGTV) and will instead focus on keeping all videos on the main Instagram app. The IGTV app, which was launched as Instagram's alternative to YouTube, did not achieve the success that the business had hoped for when it was first released in 2018. It does, however, signal the end of Instagram's journey into longer videos.

Instagram said in a blog post that it is discontinuing the standalone IGTV app as part of its "efforts to make videos as simple and feasible to discover and produce as possible."" According to the blog post, videos on the main app will have a full-screen viewer with tap-to-mute functionality, and the business is also working on a method to make sharing and viewing videos easier.

 Instagram also intends to "try a technology that will introduce adverts on Reels." Instagram's parent company, Meta, acknowledged the IGTV app's shutdown and was quoted by TechCrunch as claiming that the service will be totally shut down in mid-March.

The IGTV app was released in 2018 with the intention of competing with YouTube for vertical videos. The Instagram app also included an IGTV button that brought users to IGTV content on the main app, but Instagram deleted the button in 2020, claiming that relatively few people used it, and the company announced last year that IGTV will be rebranded "Instagram TV." The company also stated that it intends to extend IGTV's hour-long time limit to ordinary videos.

The advertisements, known as IGTV ads, that were placed in videos longer than a minute in length have also been deleted from the site, and the firm has stated that it aims to focus significantly on videos. This follows the company's announcement last year that it is no longer a photo-sharing app.