Apparently, calling your mates into a huddle to stare blankly at a 6in screen as you scroll through Instagram Reels isn’t cool anymore. As such, Meta has announced ‘Instagram for TV’, which is exactly what you think it is. If you thought ‘a thinly-veiled attempt to cash in on the ever-shortening attention span crisis’, you read our mind.
The trick is that the app is currently only available via Amazon Fire TV devices in the US; however, the company eventually hopes to expand its availability to more regions and TVs beyond this initial trial phase. “We’ve heard from our community that watching reels together is more fun, and this test is designed to learn which features make that experience work best on TV,” the company said in a blog post.
Mike Teavee would be proud
Users can sign in to the Instagram for TV app on their Fire TV devices, or by visiting ‘Settings’ inside the regular Instagram app. Or, if you’d rather keep your mobile and TV accounts separate, the TV app allows you to create a new account from scratch. Up to five Instagram accounts can be added to the app for the whole family.
Once inside, users will see their suggested Reels split into channels “that match [their] interests, including new music, sports highlights, hidden travel gems, trending moments, and more.” Meta goes on to mention that if “something catches your eye,” the reel will play automatically at full volume, because why not?
Read More: Meta unites Instagram and Facebook support as it installs a new AI assistant
Because Instagram hopes you’ll gather the family to watch Reels at Christmas, it’s applying a rather broad PG-13 rating to the videos that can be viewed on TV. As for Teen accounts browsing the app, the same restrictions and daily usage limits will apply regardless of where the content is viewed, so it’s best to keep that in mind.
For the time being, browsing through Instagram for TV using the dedicated Fire TV controller will really test users’ patience. However, the company reckons it’s working on a solution that’ll allow smartphones to run the show — with other plans that’ll see it add easier ways to share videos with friends and follow creators.
