Instagram Expands to TV Screens With Reels, Stories and Episodic Content Tests

Instagram is expanding beyond smartphones and moving into television screens, rolling out its TV app to Samsung devices as part of a broader push to bring its social and video features into the living room. The expansion follows earlier launches on Amazon Fire TV and Google TV, marking a wider effort by Meta to grow Instagram’s presence on connected television platforms.

The company is also testing new features such as Stories on TV, horizontal video formats, and the ability for users to cast Reels directly from their phones to television screens. Alongside this, Instagram is exploring longer-form storytelling formats, including episodic series and microdramas, as it seeks to adapt its short-video ecosystem for TV audiences. Meta Security Breach: AI Chatbot Bug Exposes 20,225 Instagram Accounts to Hackers, Says Report.

Instagram Expands TV App to More Devices

Instagram for TV is now available on Samsung TV devices, extending access beyond Amazon Fire TV and Google TV, where the app was previously launched. The TV version supports up to five accounts, allowing multiple users in a household to switch between personalized feeds and recommendations. The move signals Instagram’s attempt to position itself on larger screens after years of being primarily a mobile-first platform.

New Features Aim to Make Instagram More Social on TV

Instagram is testing several features designed to make viewing more interactive and shared. Users will now be able to watch Stories on television screens, bringing the short-lived format to a larger display. The platform is also testing horizontal video playback to improve viewing on widescreen TVs. How TikTok-style Videos Keep Human Brains Hooked on Content.

Casting is another key feature under development, allowing users to stream Reels directly from their phones to their television sets. "The features we’re testing today are designed to make discovering, sharing, and enjoying Instagram easier with the people around you," Instagram's parent company Meta said in a blog post.

Beyond short-form videos, Instagram is experimenting with longer storytelling formats, including episodic series and microdramas. The company is also testing live creator-led TV experiences as part of its broader effort to make Instagram more suitable for television audiences. “As we continue to learn from our community, we’re exploring more formats built for the living room and aim to start rolling them out soon,” Meta wrote.

Instagram leadership sees television as a major opportunity for future growth. Instagram Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons said the platform is evolving to help creators reach new audiences.

"Ultimately Instagram is all about connecting people around creativity. We're all about helping creators find their audiences and we're constantly evolving how we do that in order to meet their needs," Lyons told The Hollywood Reporter. "And I really think that TV is in so many ways the next frontier of that for us."

A key part of Instagram’s strategy is the expansion into episodic storytelling formats traditionally associated with television. The platform is encouraging creators to experiment with microdramas and serialized content, a format that has largely been dominated by professional production studios.

"Today a lot of them are produced by production houses and that's cool and there's going to be a role for that," Lyons said.

"But we also think there's an incredibly compelling opportunity for creators themselves to create in this format. And for a lot of the shortform content creators who are Instagram-native, it's a very accessible way to get into telling longer and more episodic stories."

The shift highlights Instagram’s evolving identity, moving from a photo-sharing app to a multi-format platform spanning short videos, live content, and now television-style storytelling.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 23, 2026 11:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).