Instagram is going up against YouTube with the announcement of IGTV, an app for watching long-form, vertical video. Vertical Video is video content shot in a portrait orientation, as opposed to the more traditional landscape mode. Vertical video is a social media phenomenon that sprung out of the selfie lifestyle.
IGTV offers videos that are displayed full-screen and vertical without any black boxes on the side, so you do not have to rotate your smartphone to view them. Just hold your phone up the way you would when taking a selfie.
So vertical video is video in portrait mode. And in addition to that, IGTV videos can be up to an hour long each, and so better suited to publishing in-depth content.
Vertical Video Is In
IGTV sounds like a ton of fun – more fun that YouTube has been. What Instagram has done is allow anyone and everyone become a video creator. No editing required. It creates video in a format that is already very natural to all of us because that is how we hold our phones by default.
As far as I can tell, YouTube will continue to attract professional videos, but IGTV is where the crowd of amateurs will create, publish and watch videos. It is the new face of video content, and I am excited about it. You can tell; right?
Using IGTV
To start, just download the app and login with your Instagram account.
You are able to follow channels – basically the video creators of your choice. If you follow a creator on Instagram, their videos are automatically available to you on IGTV. And who says you cannot become a creator too?
While those who want a pure video can use the IGTV app, IGTV videos are also available for viewing from the Instagram app.
To Download IGTV
Download IGTV for Android HERE.
Download IGTV for iOS HERE.
