Instagram is expanding its presence beyond smartphones as it brings its television app to Samsung TV devices, widening access to a platform that was previously limited to Amazon Fire TV and Google TV products. The move comes months after the company introduced a TV app for Reels in partnership with Amazon Fire TV.

Parent company Meta is also testing several new features aimed at making television viewing more social and interactive, signalling a broader push to transform Instagram into a platform for larger screens and longer-form content.

More Instagram Features Coming to Television

Meta said users will now be able to view Instagram Stories on televisions, bringing one of the platform’s most widely used features to the living room.

The company is also testing support for horizontal videos on TVs, a format intended to improve viewing on larger displays while providing creators with additional ways to reach audiences.

Another feature under evaluation would allow users to cast Reels directly from their smartphones to television screens.

“The features we’re testing today are designed to make discovering, sharing, and enjoying Instagram easier with the people around you,” Meta said in a blog post.

The television app supports up to five separate accounts, enabling different users to access personalised feeds and recommendations.

Meta Exploring Longer-Form and Live Content

Beyond short videos, Meta said it is experimenting with longer-form storytelling and episodic series involving creators.

The company is also testing live television experiences centred around creators as it seeks to make the platform more appealing to viewers watching on larger screens.

“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 said.

The initiatives reflect the company’s efforts to adapt Instagram to a viewing experience traditionally associated with television.

Television Seen as Instagram’s Next Frontier

Instagram Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons said television represented a major opportunity for the platform’s future growth.

“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,” she added.

Platform Looks Beyond Short Videos

Instagram is also encouraging creators to experiment with episodic storytelling and microdramas, formats that have historically been associated with television and professional production houses.

According to Lyons, while studios and production companies will continue to play a role in the genre, independent creators could also thrive in the space.

“Today a lot of them are produced by production houses and that’s cool and there’s going to be a role for that,” she 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 ambitions as the platform moves beyond the square-photo format and short-form videos that originally defined its identity.

With new features aimed at television audiences, live programming and serialised content, Instagram appears to be positioning itself for a future that extends well beyond the smartphone screen.

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