Instagram's IGTV Now Supports Horizontal Videos

Instagram's standalone video platform IGTV finally supports horizontal videos, the company has announced. The video app was, until now, limited to vertical content, which is arguably better suited for mobile devices but overall less popular than landscape orientation. The change is based on feedback from both viewers and creators, according to Instagram, which revealed in a post this week that its users really want horizontal videos.

Vertical videos, which used to be one of the most hated subsets of Internet content, have slowly entered the mainstream due to the mass availability of smartphones. Young viewers in particular primarily find and view video content using a smartphone, and the prevailing idea is that vertical videos are simply easier to watch from their handsets.

During its first year or so of existence, IGTV has been limited to only vertical videos. Due to feedback from its users and creators, however, Instagram has finally decided to enable landscape orientation support, meaning you'll be able to share and watch videos that are horizontal instead of vertical.

Though the platform has added this support, it won't force users to hold their phone at a rotated angle, which is considered by many to be less comfortable and natural than holding the phone in its typical vertical orientation. Users who want the video to fill the screen can hold the phone sideways, but otherwise the landscape videos will still play with the phone held upright.

Instagram describes this new support as akin to when it added support for more than just square images to its photo platform in 2015. The company anticipates the new horizontal video support will cause 'creativity to flourish and engagement to rise...' on its video platform over coming years.