If you’ve ever looked up from your phone and thought, “I’m not watching nearly enough reels today,” Instagram has a new solution: Bring the Reels feed to your TV.
Meta is rolling out a pilot “Instagram for TV” app — starting in the U.S. on Amazon Fire TV devices — that’s basically a living-room-friendly Reels channel surfer. Instead of thumb-scrolling, you browse “channels” and let vertical videos play on a bigger screen.
The company says it built the TV version because “watching reels together is more fun.”
But Axios notes that the living room is likely to be the next battleground as social platforms chase connected-TV attention — and advertisement money.
The pilot supports up to five logged-in accounts on one device, so different family members or roommates can get their own personalized feeds.
That might sound silly until realizing how much of Instagram has just turned into a vertical video app. In a 2024 investor conference call, Meta said reels make up 50% of the time spent on Instagram — meaning half the app is essentially short-form video now.
And Instagram time adds up fast. A study at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara, India, found that many members of Gen Z watch between 360 and 480 short-form videos every day.
The study also found that 65% of students feel guilty and sad after watching videos for too long.
A 2023 YouGov study found that at least 55% of Americans “second screen,” meaning that while watching TV, many have their smartphone in hand — often watching short-form content on their phone with long-form content on the TV.
So now, with this new Instagram for TV app, viewers can get their share of reels from the TV while watching TikTok or YouTube Shorts on their phone.