Instagram Debuts Apple TV App Featuring Reels, Longer Videos, and Live Shows

Instagram has launched an app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos and live shows to Apple's streaming box for the first time. The app lets viewers watch creators they follow, discover new videos and resume watching across devices, and Instagram pitches it as a way to watch together with friends and family on the big screen. It requires tvOS 26.0 or later.

The release appears to have gone live on October 23: Apple's TV-specific metadata dates version 66.0 to that day, while an archived App Store listing from October 19 still showed only iPhone and iPad support. Apple TV is the latest step in a living-room push by META: Instagram began testing a TV app on Amazon Fire TV in the United States in December 2025, expanded to Google TV in February 2026 and to Samsung smart TVs in June.

The app also reflects a change in what Instagram wants to be on television. The first TV versions focused on Reels organized into interest-based channels that play automatically, but in June Meta outlined plans to add longer creator videos, episodic series and live broadcasts, and the Apple TV listing now includes longer videos and live shows alongside Reels. That puts Instagram in more direct competition with YouTube for living-room viewing time.

What to watch: whether Meta reports TV engagement or begins selling TV-specific ad inventory, and how quickly longer-form and live content fills out the TV catalog. The launch follows Instagram's dedicated iPad app, which arrived in September 2025.