If doomscrolling on your phone wasn’t immersive enough, Instagram has a bigger idea. The platform is officially expanding its TV app to Google TV devices in the U.S., just two months after launching on Amazon Fire TV. What once felt like an experiment now looks like strategy.
Instagram is no longer treating TV as a second screen. It’s positioning it as a primary viewing environment for Reels.
From Swiping to Couch Scrolling
The Instagram TV app transforms your living room into a personalized Reels feed. Instead of swiping vertically, you browse with a remote. Reels autoplay continuously, organized into themed channels like comedy, music, lifestyle, sports highlights, cooking, travel, and viral moments. It feels less like social media and more like flipping through meme-powered cable.
The experience is account-based and fully personalized. It surfaces content from creators and topics you already engage with. Users can like Reels, view comments, and even reshare content, by pairing the TV app with their phone.
Why Reels Are Moving to the Living Room
This isn’t just product expansion. It’s competitive positioning.
YouTube already dominates connected TV. TikTok has its own TV app. If short-form video is becoming a living-room behavior, Instagram can’t afford to stay locked inside a smartphone.
But there’s something deeper happening.
As Instagram experiments with creator-led mini dramas and episodic storytelling, the TV screen offers scale, immersion, and shared viewing. Watching a 30-second Reel alone on your phone feels casual. Watching a serialized creator show on a 65-inch screen feels intentional.
Instagram isn’t just chasing views. It’s testing whether social content can evolve into ambient entertainment.
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