New Instagam app on Apple TV brings reels, long

We’re less than a month away from the release of a new iteration of the Apple TV, packed with the kind of computing power once reserved for desktops, so it only makes sense that it should learn some new tricks.  

Yesterday, we learned about one of those new tricks when Instagram was re-listed on the Apple App Store as available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. But this isn’t the first time Instagram has flirted with the big screen. Initial testing of the new form factor began in late 2025 on Amazon Fire TVs and rolled out to Samsung TVs in mid-2026, so Apple is actually the last to adopt the new TV app.

The most visible change as part of this new TV adoption is Instagram having to offer not only the portrait-style videos common to most phone and tablet designs but also horizontal, landscape videos to accommodate TV aspect ratios. As part of its migration to streaming services and smart TVs, Instagram is also exploring new video form factors, including longer-form video, episodic videos, live streaming, and even subscriptions, which would bring it into closer competition with YouTube, the internet’s premier video content service. 

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Meta, parent company of Instagram, is betting that its famously addictive short-form video content will translate well to the big screen, where it can be enjoyed more communally, and it’s working closely with creators to make the experience of uploading or streaming on Instagram as painless as possible. 

It might seem like a risky bet, but if Meta can grab even a fraction of YouTube’s massive audience, it will more than pay off.