Gadgetory

I have some really big news the big news is that we are now a global community of a billion monthly actives on Instagram it's incredible and it's something Mike and I never thought would happen but here we are eight years later and it truly wouldn't have happened without all of you thank you so much okay so that's not the only news I have to talk about today although that's a big one let's talk about video so video is a way we hang out with friends and we pass the time but how we watch it is changing teens are now watching 40% less TV than they did five years ago an on Instagram people are watching 60 percent more video in just the last year so how he watches changing quickly but what we watch is changing to an entirely new category of video and now exists and it's being made by creators teens might be watching less TV but they're watching more creators online and the number of creators has grown exponentially combined these creators reach hundreds of millions of followers and that makes Instagram one of the largest and most engaged audiences anywhere in the world all of this change is super exciting but we think there are a handful of problems the tools we watch video are old and out of date think about it today we still watch videos formatted for a TV on a vertical screen which means we either have to rotate our phone awkwardly or watch a tiny little version and that doesn't make much sense does it but that's not all video on mobile is also clunky and unnatural current apps make you search or browse the directory to find things you like always the last time you had to turn on a TV and then had to type a search just to start watching and even once you know what you want to watch the results can be really overwhelming how can you find all the good stuff among all the cat videos and everything else where are the creators that you guys love all of these problems made us think that you deserve better and it's time for video to move forward and to evolve but how how can we make this better for our community of a bill whatever we do it has to be mobile first this is on your phone so it should be built with your phone in mind next it has to be simple we have a sing an Instagram which is to do one thing and one thing really well finally quality in a world of overwhelming choice you want the best videos not just all videos so we followed these three principles and we built something brand new do you guys want to know what it is we call it a GTV we've reimagined what video is on mobile and we want to share it with you today IG TV is an app for watching long-form vertical video from your favorite creators and now the fun part I'm gonna ask Ashley the product manager on the project to come up and show you what we've made Ashley thank you so much Kevin as Kevin mentioned IG TV is a brand new experience inside of the main Instagram app and it's also a new dedicated standalone app and I'm super excited I get to give you all a deeper look into how it works today so the first thing you'll notice when you first enter IG TV is that everything is made for how you naturally hold your phone videos play fullscreen and there's no wasted space and they aren't restricted to the same one minute limit that you're used to on Instagram have you ever come across one of those 30-second preview videos in your feed and it kind of just leaves you wanting more it sort of leaves you hanging no more of that on IG TV because everything is longer you get to see the full thing another thing you'll notice with IG TV is that it's dead simple the moment you open the app you're already watching all the content you love from all the creators you love personally I really love adventure so it's great for me that I TV showed me this video of Alex Hayes who's an Australian creator IG TV also presents the highest quality content for me when I want to discover new creators I just swipe around to check out their channels that's actually how I found Clara Mars this French creator that I never would have discovered without IG TV you seen these Swiper on channels oh wait for a second so you can see Clara so this is Clara Mars a great French grader I never would have found her without ID TV how cute is her dog and I'll go ahead and I'll interact with her and her friends and her fans right there and for example leave a comment and let her know how cute I think her dog is and I love this video from Clara so much that I want to see more from her so I'll go ahead and I'll check out her channel rest of her videos are there and I can actually also follow her from right there so I can see more of her on IG TV and also across the rest of Instagram so as you can see I GTV really is just as Kevin said one its mobile first which means everything's made for how you naturally hold your phone to it's super simple and intuitive to and lastly and most importantly we bring the high quality content to you from the creators you already know and love and if you want to upload your own IG TV videos you can do that also right from within the app starting today anyone can become the next I G TV creator I'm super excited we have a little another surprise for you I get to introduce one in particular the IG TV team and I had a great privilege of getting to meet this creator Brice Xavier many months ago and we were so inspired not only by his creativity but by how naturally shooting vertical video really came to him so it was no surprise to us that he's already amassed an audience of millions of fans he's been cast by Disney Cartoon Network he's even been featured in music videos from stars like Cee Lo Green and Janelle Monae please join me in giving a very warm welcome to Brice Xavier hello everyone how are you all doing today good I hope thank you so much Ashley I'm really excited to be here with everyone I'm Bryce Xavier if you guys don't know Instagram creator actor model and singer Instagram has really been the big part of my life it was the reason why I actually started doing there's a lot of stuff that I do today it gave me a place to take the little ideas that I thought inside of my head and make them into something bigger as we can all see here today and using IG TV I know that I will be able to expand my horizons even further check out my first three videos as you can see here with my crazy friends I'm trying out a few new things like motivational tips random thoughts and just a sneak peek into my everyday life whether fits on set or just sitting in my room at home I'm also excited to see how IG TV is going to inspire people worldwide to make all of their dreams into a reality to no matter what their aspirations are we've come a really long way in just eight years and then thanks to this incredible community and many of the creators that you saw today that we've been able to launch ITV G TV like everything we've built IG TV is for you guys and this is really an evolution of our mission from day one it started with square photos and filters those were the good old days right we helped people share moments with our friends but then people start capturing more video and in 2013 we launched video and did you know that actually happened on this exact day five years ago and since then video has exploded we've continued to build video experiences and in 2016 we launched stories and man it's taken off hundreds of millions of people now share stories which brings us to today with IG TV our latest addition to the evolution of Instagram long-form vertical video from the creators that you love it's mobile first it's simple and its quality that's IG TV the app will be available in the coming days on Android and iOS and in the meantime you can update your Instagram app to start watching IG TV today there's so much great content being uploaded by creators from around the so we compiled a sneak peak to give you a little teaser of what's to come let's watch it I love Erica vania