According to TechCrunch, Instagram announced on Tuesday that it’s expanding Reels beyond mobile with a pilot of “IG for TV,” a new experience for watching Reels on television, starting with Amazon Fire TV. The app will be personalized, showing Reels based on what you already watch on your phone, and will organize videos into channels like comedy and music. Reels will play automatically, and you can like, view comments, and re-share them directly from the TV. Users can either pair the TV app with their existing Instagram account or create a new one just for TV viewing. This move follows Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s comments in October, where he said the company was exploring TV and admitted it was a mistake not to have done so earlier.
The YouTube playbook
Here’s the thing: this isn’t a surprise. It’s a blatant, and frankly necessary, attempt to follow the YouTube and, more recently, TikTok playbook. YouTube absolutely dominates the living room. It’s the default “I don’t know what to watch” app for millions. Instagram, owned by Meta, sees people scrolling Reels on their phones while the TV is on and thinks, “Why not just be on the TV, too?” They want to be the channel you flip to when you’re too tired for a movie. It’s about capturing that lazy, low-attention-span viewing session. And honestly, it makes perfect sense. If short-form video is the future, it can’t live only on a 6-inch screen.
This is not IGTV 2.0
They’re very careful to note this isn’t IGTV. Remember that? Instagram’s awkward, half-hearted push into long-form video that they quietly killed in 2022. This is different. IG for TV is just an extension of the Reels feed you already know. It’s taking their most successful, addictive format and putting it on the biggest, most communal screen in the house. The automatic play and channel organization are smart—it turns a solitary scrolling experience into a lean-back, almost broadcast-like one. You can imagine a group of friends just letting it run in the background. But will people actually log in? Pairing your phone seems easy, but creating a whole new account just for TV feels like a friction point.
Mosseri’s telling admission
The most interesting part of this whole announcement might be the look back. Adam Mosseri basically said, “We messed up by not doing this sooner.” He wishes they’d built a TV app years ago. That’s a huge admission from a top Meta exec. It shows they see TV not as an experiment, but as a critical, missed surface they need to own. They’re playing catch-up to TikTok, which has had a TV app for a while, and are miles behind YouTube’s entrenched position. Starting with Fire TV is a logical first step—it’s a huge installed base—but you can bet Roku, Apple TV, and smart TV apps are coming if this pilot shows any sign of life.
What it means for you
So what changes? For users, it’s another option. Another feed to get lost in. For creators, it’s a new venue for their content, potentially with different viewing behaviors. Will TV viewers engage differently than phone scrollers? Probably. And for the market, it’s another front in the endless streaming wars. We’re not just fighting over movies and shows anymore; we’re fighting over your 30-second attention spans. Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ want your focused viewing. YouTube, TikTok, and now Instagram Reels are happy to take the scraps of time when you’re just zoning out. The battle for your living room just got a lot more fragmented.
