The Future is Vertical

With a new long-form video app called IGTV, Instagram is giving us a glimpse of our vertical-video future – and is aiming it squarely at teens.

This week Instagram rolled out a new, long-form video feature called IGTV, which lives both within the regular Instagram app and exists as its own app. On this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, Mike and Arielle chat about how the new format works, what long videos (up to 60 minutes!) will mean for Instagram and its creators, how IGTV will stack up to YouTube, and most importantly, whether this means our vertical video futures have officially arrived.

Podcast

Some notes: You can read Lauren Goode and Louise Matsakis’s story here about IGTV and whether it can compete with YouTube.

Recommendations this week: Arielle recommends The Habitat, a new non-fiction podcast series from Gimlet Media, about a group of people who volunteered for a year-long mission that simulated living life on Mars. Mike recommends this story in WIRED by Lisa Wood Shapiro, about a technology called Grammarly that helped her cheat dyslexia.

Send the Gadget Lab hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Lauren Goode, who returns to the podcast next week, is @laurengoode, and Michael Calore is @snackfight, and Arielle Pardes is @pardesoteric. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.

How to Listen

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