Remember Instagram’s long-form video app, IGTV? No? Well, Instagram wants to fix that by throwing more IGTV contents your way on your main Instagram feed.
The company announced yesterday that it wants to add one-minute IGTV previews to your feed, making it easier to discover and watch content from its twin platform.
These previews would appear when someone you follow posts a new video on IGTV. Instagram would then add the one-minute clip of that video to your home feed along with a link to watch the full video on IGTV.
IGTV Not Living up to Expectations
Instagram first introduced its long-form video-sharing platform in June last year to rival YouTube. The platform allows creators to share long-form videos within the Instagram platform instead of just short-form content to the Feed or Stories.
And despite having a standalone app, the platform is also intergrated into the Instagram platform itself (that red little button on the top right corner of your Instagram home feed).
This is one of several moves by the company to push the platforms content. Others have included putting IGTV videos in the Explore section of the platform, and occasional notifications showing new videos put up by users you follow.
But despite these strategies, the platform has not lived up to expectations. Contents on the platform are not really premium as expected as most are just longer versions of live feeds.
The app itself is ranked very low at No. 1,442 as at July 2018 which was the last time it appeared in Apple’s top charts. It also ranked 203 on Google Playstore ranking for social apps.
This is despite being run by Instagram, which is one the top ranking apps globally.
Desperate Times Calls for Strategic Actions
For Instagram, the proposed update could give IGTV the much-needed boost. But with IGTV so unpopular, cluttering users feeds with ‘unwanted’ videos may not be charming.
The good thing is that the IGTV videos will be from people you follow. But don’t be surprised Instagram may one day start putting IGTV clips of people you don’t follow into your feed especially if this approach does not sell.
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