Instagram Debuts Dedicated Television App for Amazon Fire TV

(Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram unveiled its first dedicated TV app, which lets users watch the short-form video feature Reels on a larger screen. 

The app will initially launch on Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV platform, the company said Tuesday, describing the offering as a test. Eventually, Instagram aims to expand onto other TV platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. 

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri hinted at a TV app from the stage at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference in Los Angeles in October. If people are consuming social media platforms on television, “then we need to move to TV, too,” Mosseri said at the time. He pointed to the success that YouTube has had on larger screens with its various TV products, and mentioned that he wished Instagram had looked into such an app sooner. 

Instagram is in a competitive fight for user attention with platforms like TikTok and YouTube — particularly in the field of short-form video. Reels, which provides short clips on both Instagram and Facebook, has become a top focus for the company since users are spending more and more time there. In some cases, Instagram is opening the app directly into Reels — instead of showing the more traditional photo and video feed — part of a test to lean into the feature’s popularity. 

Users can log in to the Instagram for TV app to get personalized video recommendations on the larger screen. The app will also group videos into “channels,” such as comedy, sports or lifestyle, so that people can get a feed of videos that feel related, a company spokesperson said in an email.

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