As
if the social network with the biggest variety of ways to post a piece of
content was king, Instagram’s released another new feature. This new system
allows creators to take clips from their IGTV videos to post to the main news
feed. Instagram said they did this so that “you can preview IGTV videos in your
feed.”
So it’s not as if you’re getting content from any content
creators you don’t already follow – so far as we know. But instead, it’s a new
way for Instagram to promote their IGTV platform for longer-form videos. For
their version of self-contained YouTube, if that’s how you’d like to see the
situation.
IGTV was first launched back in June 2018,
and to Instagram’s credit, the program’s stuck around far longer than we
expected it might. IGTV is a system with which content creators take to
Instagram with videos they might’ve otherwise posted to other video sites –
like YouTube, Vimeo, or some lesser-known site.
“Like TV, IGTV has channels. But, in IGTV, the creators are the
channels,” said Instagram about IGTV at launch time last year. “When you follow
a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch.
Anyone can be a creator — you can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on
the web to start your own channel.”
Now Instagram’s attempting to bring people into the IGTV app
from the standard Instagram app. This isn’t the first time this has happened,
and it’s probably not the last. Now it’s just in your news feed for the first
time ever.
In other words, it’s Instagram expanding, yet again, out beyond
the basic photo app they once were. Users will find IGTV preview videos in
their feed as of this afternoon. That’s assuming they follow any content
creators that’ve taken the time to make IGTV videos and took the extra time to
create IGTV preview videos for the videos they’ve already created.
Does anyone else get the feeling that some day society will’ve
turned away from social media like this, and content creators that might’ve
otherwise made something wonderful will realize they’ve wasted their lives
creating vertical or square videos that nobody can see? I get that feeling
sometimes.
Tags:
instagram