The front and featured IGTV button has come and gone in a flash of uselessness. Although IGTV itself is being used de facto by plenty of people, it's rarely intentional. Even when the button was still in the top right corner, it sat desolate – most people found IGTV content through previews in Feed or through the IGTV channel in Explore. Others were using the standalone app or simply browsing their favorite creators’ profiles.

How to Find IGTV Content?

Instagram’s decision to remove the button is final, and there are no chances of returning it. The company’s data shows that very few are clicking it, and the idea of removing the IGTV icon is welcome. The point is to simplify the interface with one less thing vying for users’ attention.

In other words, Instagram is de-prioritizing IGTV as a standalone service. However, users can still post IGTV videos; they just need to use the same video-upload interface as they would typically use for their main Feed.

IGTV was launched as a YouTube Competitor

Focusing on vertical video content, IGTV was launched in June 2018 as a YouTube competitor. This was a key selling point for the Facebook-owned company at the time of its launch.

Instagram’s IGTV Button Is Now Gone for Good Due to Low Clicks

However, a new competitor appeared and made the adoption of Instagram’s IGTV adoption rather disappointing. Since June 2018, IGTV has had 1.1 million downloads in the US, while TikTok has had over 80.5 million.

One of the top-following Instagram creators, Juan Eliezer, was rather disappointed when he found out that the IGTV button was gone. However, he shared that the main reason he was using IGTV is that it allowed him to post content longer than 1 minute. He also added that he’d probably never have used it if he hadn’t needed the 1-minute plus option.