
Instagram announces IGTV - prawn
https://instagram-press.com/blog/2018/06/20/welcome-to-igtv/
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maciejgryka
I've recently read a report about how media optimized for addictiveness
impacts children's development [0] and found this sentence from the IGTV
announcement particularly jarring: "Just like turning on the TV, IGTV starts
playing as soon as you open the app".

[0] [https://5rightsframework.com/static/5Rights-Disrupted-
Childh...](https://5rightsframework.com/static/5Rights-Disrupted-
Childhood.pdf)

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leethargo
Thanks for the reference! Already shared with my parents who are quite worried
about my phone-obsessed teenage sibling.

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Jaruzel
I wonder if the backend of IGTV is the same as the one that powers Facebook
inline video content? Either the same technology, or the same
infrastructure...

I also can't shift the feeling that IGTV is designed to pull 'influencers'
away from YouTube.

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soziawa
At this point Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are just different front-ends
to the same services behind it. They all use Facebook servers and technology.

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nindalf
Do you work at Facebook?

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soziawa
No, you can tell by the design and the servers they use.

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naeemak01
yes i read 20th june an amazing feature introduce by instagram. IGtv Views ,
Will give tough time to YouTube . [https://smmpoint.com/buy-instagram-tv-
views/](https://smmpoint.com/buy-instagram-tv-views/) look like many website
now helping to increasing views

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lazharichir
It's nice-looking but feels more like an extended Instagram Stories than an
actual YouTube competitor.

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wastedhours
Yep - discovery still looks to be hit and miss, that's the key for a YT
competitor, not just the length of video.

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soziawa
Discovery on YouTube sucks so much they might as well not have it.

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cobookman
Why do you say that. I've found it to have great recommendations.

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soziawa
I'm mainly interested in computer science, engineering and professional race
driving. What I get recommended are videos about the second world war and car
crash compilations. Every three to four months a video that is actually
interesting shows up.

And the recommendations when watching a video is even worse. I'm watching
video about voting systems and all the recommendations are car crash
compilations.

I must have been sorted into a very stupid pool of viewers.

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thisacctforreal
If you tie it to a Google account you can tune them by watching videos on
topics you are interested in, as well as flagging videos & channels with "Not
Interested". Their algorithms are definitely eager to find you a flood of
content you'll enjoy. The hard part is seeding it with high quality channels.

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netsharc
IMO it's too eager. I watch 1 video of dashcam crashes, and my recommendations
get polluted with them. Same with 1 video of tennis. The algorithm seems
designed to keep eyeballs in the app. This lead me to switch to NewPipe on
Android, where the "front page" of the app is customizable, so I just leave it
to "most popular videos in $country", they all happen to be music videos and
not have click-baity titles.

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addicted
I think this is a recent change (over the past couple of years?) in their
algorithm.

Every now and then I will watch a video which will cause my recommendations to
be flooded with nothing but stuff like that video, and videos from series that
I have been watching regularly for years get buried.

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giancarlostoro
Might not provide enough revenue (or not be monetized at all) so they don't
prioritize the other videos.

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thisisit
So, the race to squeeze out "influencers" for all their ad worth has started?

First Youtube rolls out a Sponsor button to try and stop people from those
going to Patreon. Then it tries to force people to monetize their videos even
if the creator doesn't want to.

Now Instagram wants people to stay on their platform and not re-direct people
to other video sites.

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buraksarica
Will i ever understand the logic behind giving user one minute videos first,
and then building IGTV years later?

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usrusr
Chicken and egg: short videos can still be kind of bearable when amateurishly
produced, the length limitation serves as guiderails. Now that much of the
content consumed on Instagram is thoroughly professional, they can open the
limit. Did anyone else notice how the announcement doesn't include a single
line about how users would create those longer videos?

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SmallDeadGuy
I'm excited because I follow a lot of video content creators on instagram,
having to switch to youtube or twitch.tv to actually watch their content. If I
can get all of their pictures/text announcements and video content in one
place I will be very happy. Though as a separate app, it doesn't sound like
it'll be integrated as nicely with instagram as I'd hope for.

EDIT: I missed that it can be watched from within the instagram app too, this
is almost perfect! I just need landscape video support so I'm not watching
streamers play in vertical mode and I can finally stop using youtube.

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soziawa
Why would you want to give even more power to Facebook? It's bad enough that
they were allowed to buy Instagram and WhatsApp. At least online video should
belong to a different company.

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SmallDeadGuy
It's not that I want to give more power to Facebook, it's that it's more
convenient for my use case. Sure Facebook has too much power, but so does
Google and I'd rather my video watching data was all aggregated in a much
smaller ecosystem that only encompasses my social life and not my entire web
browsing habits, email, phone use, etc.

So yeah, I want to transfer the power from Google to Facebook for now until a
better option comes along.

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soziawa
If you think that Facebook doesn't already know your web browsing habits and
phone use. I have bad news for you. They don't have email that is true, but
they have WhatsApp and FB Messenger which might be worse.

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jug
I can't imagine this will be very well used. It's obviously a reaction to
influencers and monetizing on ad revenue from them but I have to wonder how
many will install two different Instagram apps...

(The influencer will also be on the main one.)

And I am surprised this couldn't be efficiently integrated to the main app. Is
it about branding? I mean... They just increased the clip length. Couldn't
those clips be shown prominently for/on the user in the main app?

I'm getting stuck on the issue of two different apps because I think that's
where the most friction will be.

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girvo
Wait, didn’t the article explicitly mention that it’s also in the main app, or
did I misread?

“While there’s a stand-alone IGTV app, you’ll also be able to watch from
within the Instagram app so the entire community of one billion can use it
from the very start.”

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jug
Ooh I must have missed that when I saw this yesterday. I directly went to the
App Store and saw the new IGTV app and just assumed it was a new separate
product although with their existing user base.

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oooooof
What is it? Intended to compete with YouTube?

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billysielu
I think it sounds more like IRL on Twitch TV.

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IshKebab
Wow those app icons are terrible.

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SmellyGeekBoy
> "...it’s built for how you actually use your phone, so videos are full
> screen and vertical."

Oh dear.

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dewey
I don't understand why vertical video always gets this response, mostly from
people who do anything with film.

I get it, it's not the most cinematic experience but who actually wants to
hold their phone sideways while scrolling through a feed, or switch apps etc?
It just doesn't make sense to do it any other way. Also as most video is even
filmed in portrait mode.

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Rjevski
Vertical video is awful because it doesn't capture any of the surroundings of
the subject, and instead wastes those pixels it on filming what's above &
below the subject (which 99% of the time is irrelevant).

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whywhywhywhy
For traditional media yes, but for influencers it fits their face and the
product just fine and landscape is actually a waste.

A sad reality.

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Rjevski
Depends what those "influencers" are about. A lot of successful Youtube
influencers actually show off something else besides their face and for those
the mandatory vertical video wouldn't cut it.

