Instagram launches Apple TV app with landscape videos and live streaming
Instagram has released a dedicated app for Apple TV, marking its expansion into smart TV platforms. The app introduces horizontal, landscape-oriented videos alongside traditional portrait content, while also enabling long-form video, live streaming, and potential creator subscriptions. These moves position Instagram as a direct competitor to YouTube in the living room.
Editor, Lazyfounder
A new frontier for Instagram on TV
Instagram’s new app for Apple TV expands its reach beyond mobile devices, allowing users to stream content on larger screens. The app supports both traditional portrait-style videos and horizontal, landscape-oriented formats, which are better suited for TV viewing. This shift aligns with Meta’s broader push to adapt Instagram’s short-form video content for communal, big-screen experiences.
Competing with YouTube on long-form and live content
The Apple TV app introduces features that could challenge YouTube’s dominance in long-form video and live streaming. Instagram is testing extended video formats, episodic content, and even subscription options for creators. According to Mashable, Meta is collaborating with creators to refine the uploading and streaming experience, signaling a focus on improving content creation tools for the TV platform.
Meta’s earlier tests of the TV app on Amazon Fire TVs in late 2025 and Samsung TVs in mid-2026 suggest a gradual rollout strategy. The goal, as reported by Mashable, is to capture a portion of YouTube’s massive audience by offering a seamless transition from mobile to TV.
Meta’s recent bets on TV and wearables
This launch follows Meta’s broader investments in big-screen experiences and wearable technology. Earlier this year, Ray-Ban and Meta introduced the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, a camera-free version of their AI smart glasses, emphasizing privacy and open-ear audio. The move reflected Meta’s focus on integrating AI-driven features into everyday devices while addressing user concerns about surveillance.
Meta’s push into TV apps also complements its efforts to bridge mobile and living room experiences. The company’s acquisition of Bee AI in 2025, and Amazon’s subsequent launch of AI-powered wearables like Bee Frontier and Bee Eclipse, highlight a broader industry trend: tech giants are increasingly blending AI, wearables, and smart TVs to create interconnected ecosystems.
What this means
Lazyfounder analysis — our interpretation, not reported fact.
Instagram’s Apple TV app is more than a technical expansion—it’s a strategic play to redefine how users consume social video. By embracing horizontal formats and long-form content, Meta is directly targeting YouTube’s core audience: viewers who prefer lean-back, big-screen experiences. For creators, this shift could open new monetization avenues, such as subscriptions or episodic content, but it also raises the bar for production quality. Founders in the social video space should take note: TV is no longer an afterthought but a battleground for attention, and the tools to compete are becoming more accessible.
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Sources
- Mashable · 2026-10-25
New Instagam app on Apple TV brings reels, long-form video and live shows
This story is an original summary drafted with AI by Lazyfounder from the reporting listed above and checked by automated validation. Facts are attributed to their original publishers; sections marked as analysis are Lazyfounder's. Where a source is in another language, facts were machine-translated and quotations are reported, not reproduced. Read the original coverage via the links, and see our AI policy and corrections policy.
About the author
Editor, Lazyfounder
Tarun Mottlia edits LazyFounders, covering Indian startups, funding rounds, AI and product launches. Every story on the site is AI-assisted and checked against its cited sources before publication.
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