Instagram's 90-Minute Videos: What Podcasters and Clipping Teams Need to Know

Instagram is testing videos up to 90 minutes long, in a horizontal format it calls Features, and is bringing its TV app to Apple TV. It is not sharing ad revenue from those videos with the creators who make them. For podcasters and clipping teams, the more important test is the one announced beside it: Clips as Reels, which lets short Reels send viewers to the full-length video. Instagram is building the clip-to-episode funnel into the app, and the clips are the half of it a creator can act on today.

Checked October 27, 2026. Instagram announced these tests on October 26. Access is limited to a small group of creators, there is no public rollout date, and Instagram has not published a help page for Features. Every detail below is attributed to the reporting it comes from. Variety, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Next Web

What did Instagram announce on October 26?

Four related changes, each at a different stage:

Change	What it is	Status as reported
Features	Horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, for podcasts, vlogs, interviews and episodes	Tested in Brazil, now expanding to a small U.S. test. Variety reports 90 minutes is one of several length limits being tried.
Clips as Reels	Reels cut from a long video that link viewers to the full Feature	Tested in Brazil, now expanding to a small U.S. test. Variety reports up to eight clips can point to one long video.
Series	A place on a creator's profile for episodic Reels	Testing in the U.S., India and Mexico, expanding to more countries through the end of 2026
Instagram for TV	Instagram's TV app, already on Fire TV, Google TV and Samsung TVs in the U.S.	Variety reports it is now on Apple TV in the U.S.; The Next Web described Apple TV support as still on its way

The Next Web reports that Features will appear in the main feed and on Explore, and that the TV app will give them priority. Engadget reports that, for now, only a few creators who have struck individual deals with Meta can post them.

This is Instagram's second attempt at long video. IGTV launched in 2018 and was shut down in 2022. Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, had opposed long-form video on the platform for years, reasoning that short videos are what people share and send to friends. He now describes short and long video as "symbiotic" and says the format will take time to get right. TechCrunch, Engadget

Does Instagram pay creators for 90-minute videos?

Not through an ad revenue share. An Instagram representative told Variety the company is funding longer-form content directly with some creators, and said "it's too early to share a long-term monetization model." A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that Instagram is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram, including performance-based incentives. Engadget, citing The Hollywood Reporter, says Meta plans to help creators who have no advertiser relationships find brand partners.

YouTube is the comparison every report draws. Its Partner Program shares 55% of ad revenue on long-form videos and 45% of allocated Shorts revenue with creators. YouTube Instagram has no equivalent on Features, and none on Reels either: Mosseri has described its performance-based payments as a small program that costs Meta more than it makes back. TechCrunch

So for now a 90-minute Feature is a reach and retention asset, and something a sponsor can be attached to. It is not a revenue line. Plan around the monetization Instagram has actually announced, and leave a revenue share out of the budget until it publishes one.

Why does a long-video launch make clips more important?

Because the long video still has to be found. Discovery on Instagram runs on short vertical video, and Features is neither short nor vertical. Clips as Reels is Instagram's answer to how a 90-minute episode finds an audience: cut it into Reels and let each one point to the whole.

That is the job clipping already does on YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Reels. The difference is that on Instagram the path from clip to episode becomes part of the app instead of a line in a caption or a link in a bio. Three things follow from that.

• A clip has one destination. A Reel linked to a Feature sends a viewer to a specific episode on the same platform. Instagram has not said what insights it will show for linked clips, so record whatever it does show from the first batch.
• A clip has to sell the episode, not stand in for it. It should deliver a complete moment and make the rest of the conversation worth watching. A clip that cuts before the answer to force a tap is still clickbait, linked or not.
• Where the clips come from matters. Eight cuts from the first ten minutes tell a viewer only that the episode starts well.

How should you pick the clips that link to one episode?

Treat "up to eight" as a ceiling. Three clips you are sure of are worth more than eight that repeat each other. Give each clip a different job, and take them from across the whole runtime, including the final third:

Role	What the clip delivers	Why a viewer taps through
Premise	The question the episode exists to answer	They know what the 90 minutes is about
Answer	One complete answer to a narrower question	Proof the guest has substance
Story	An anecdote with a beginning and an end	The episode has narrative, not only advice
Debate	Two people disagreeing on the record	The conversation is not a monologue
Example	A specific case the guest stands behind	Concrete enough to remember and share
How-to	A step a viewer could try this week	The episode has more where that came from
Admission	Something the guest got wrong and changed	Candour is rare and worth hearing in full
Takeaway	The guest's closing view	They want to see how the guest got there

The timestamps and roles are an illustrative plan for a hypothetical interview, not a result from Instagram's test. Three rules hold whichever roles you use:

1. Each clip stands on its own. Name the subject in the first sentence, keep the question audible, and keep any qualification the guest gave. A viewer who never taps through should still have watched something worth their time.
2. Spread the timestamps. A clip from minute 71 tells a viewer the episode is still good an hour in. Front-loading every clip says the opposite.
3. Reframe and caption every clip. A Feature is horizontal and a Reel is vertical, so each clip from a 16:9 recording needs a 9:16 reframe that keeps the speaker in frame, plus captions for viewers watching without sound.

Should podcasters upload full episodes to Instagram now?

Most cannot yet: Features is limited to the creators in Instagram's test. If you are one of them, run it as an experiment with a defined question. Does linking clips to the full episode turn Instagram followers into long-form viewers, and does that audience hold up beside the one you already have on YouTube?

Keep the long-form home where long-form is paid. On YouTube a full episode earns a share of ad revenue; on Instagram it does not. Posting the same episode in both places is a distribution decision, not a monetization one.

If you are not in the test, the preparation is work worth doing anyway. Record in 16:9 at a quality that holds up on a television, keep a timestamped transcript of every episode, and produce a set of clips from each one as a habit. Podcasts are moving onto the living-room screen from several directions at once: YouTube is already there, Apple added video to Apple Podcasts earlier this year, and Instagram's TV app is the newest entrant. When Features opens up, a show that already clips every episode has its linked-clip set ready on day one.

What does this change for clipping agencies and campaigns?

Platform payouts on Instagram were never the business, and this does not change that. A clipping campaign is funded by the brand or the creator, usually on a per-view rate, and any platform revenue is accounted for separately. Our guide to CPM, per-post and retainer campaign models covers how those payments are structured.

Linked clips favour the account that owns the episode. None of the coverage says whether a Reel from another account can link to a creator's Feature. Until Instagram documents it, plan on linked Reels being posted from the account that owns the Feature. For an agency, that means operating the creator's own account with approvals, as well as or instead of a network of third-party clip pages. The clipping campaign overview explains that service model for customer-owned accounts, and our comparison of a clipping tool, a managed campaign and a clipping agency sets out who does what in each.

Reporting moves from views to views that reached the episode. Even if Instagram exposes little about linked clips, an agency can record which roles it posted, when, and what the Feature's own views did over the following days. That is a correlation, not proof that a particular clip caused a particular view, and the report should say so.

How to produce linked clips with Overlap

Overlap is an AI clipping tool built as an agent workflow, so the clip set can be produced every time an episode publishes rather than assembled by hand.

• Trigger: the New YouTube Video or RSS Feed node starts the workflow when a new episode appears.
• Highlight detection: Find Clips selects candidate moments against your editorial brief.
• 9:16 reframe: Convert to Vertical turns the horizontal recording into vertical clips that keep the speaker in frame.
• Captions: Add Subtitles generates and styles captions from the transcript.
• Publishing: Post to Social schedules to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and other platforms, with manual approval available before anything goes live.

Linking a Reel to a Feature happens inside Instagram, for creators in the test. Overlap does not document setting that link, so treat it as a manual step after the Reels are approved.

Here is an original brief for the Find Clips step, written for a hypothetical interview:

Audience: people who follow the show on Instagram but have never watched a full episode. From this 90-minute interview, find up to eight self-contained moments spread across the whole recording, with at least two from the final third. Give each one a different role: the episode's premise, a complete answer, a story with an ending, a disagreement, a specific example, a practical step, an admission, or the closing view. Each clip must name its subject in the first sentence and keep any qualification the guest gave. Do not cut before an answer to create suspense. If a role has no honest candidate, skip it rather than forcing one.

The podcast-to-published-clips walkthrough shows the full workflow and review steps, and the best way to make podcast clips covers the editorial side in more depth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you post 90-minute videos on Instagram?

Only if you are part of Instagram's test. As of October 27, 2026, Instagram is testing horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long, called Features, with a small group of creators in Brazil and the U.S., and it has not announced when other accounts will get access.

What is Instagram Features?

Features is Instagram's test format for long, horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes, aimed at podcasts, vlogs, interviews and episodic shows. It is separate from Reels, which are short and vertical, and reports say Features will appear in the main feed, on Explore and in Instagram's TV app.

Does Instagram share ad revenue with creators for long videos?

No. Instagram is not offering a YouTube-style ad revenue share for Features. It has said it is funding some longer-form creators directly, that it is too early to share a long-term monetization model, and that it is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram.

What is Clips as Reels on Instagram?

Clips as Reels is an Instagram test that lets creators turn parts of a long video into Reels that link viewers to the full-length Feature. Variety reports that up to eight clips can point to one long video.

Is Instagram available on Apple TV?

Variety reported on October 26, 2026 that Instagram's TV app is available on Apple TV in the U.S., joining Amazon Fire TV, Google TV and Samsung TVs. Other outlets described Apple TV support as still rolling out, so check the App Store on your own device.

Should podcasters still post clips if Instagram hosts full episodes?

Yes. Discovery on Instagram runs through short vertical video, and the Clips as Reels test is built on clips sending viewers to the full episode. A 90-minute Feature with no clips pointing to it has to find its audience some other way.

Is YouTube or Instagram better for long-form podcast video?

For earning from the long video itself, YouTube: its Partner Program pays creators 55% of ad revenue on long-form videos, while Instagram pays no ad revenue share on Features. Instagram Features is a way to keep an audience you already have on Instagram, and it is still a limited test.