Instagram’s IGTV now supports landscape videos

Instagram has conceded that vertical videos aren’t all their cracked up to be. The app’s IGTV feature will now support landscape clips. The change was made because of creators’ and users’ feedback. The company said in a blog post, “In many ways, opening IGTV to more than just vertical videos is similar to when we opened Instagram to more than just square photos in 2015. It enabled creativity to flourish and engagement to rise—and we believe the same will happen again with IGTV.”

While it wasn’t outright said, Instagram had trouble making IGTV flourish. While the creators who worked with Instagram to build IGTV content liked it, they weren’t able to monetize these videos. The vertical video format also meant that they had to optimize their videos for the platform. It felt like there was extra work for little return. And according to creators who talked to The Verge, view counts were lower on the platform than on others. It was only when Instagram started allowing them to share the story to their feeds did viewership numbers increase.