Instagram goes from short-form to 90-minute videos

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2:37Go to odsc.ai slash west and use promo code tcdaily for an additional 15 % off your pass to ODSC AI West 2026. That's O-D-S-C dot A-I slash West and use code TCDAILY to get an extra 15 % off the number one AI builders and training conference. Watch out, YouTube. Instagram goes from short form to 90-minute videos. I'm Emron Shaikh and your Daily Crunch for Wednesday featuring three big tech headlines. Starts right now. The launch of the iPhone Duo, Apple's hotly anticipated foldable phone, is off to a rough start. The phone was announced at this year's Surprise and Shine event, with Apple promising that it had finally gotten a notoriously tricky form factor right.

3:22Well, however, Bloomberg reports that early Duo users have been complaining about screens cracking after just hours or days of use. Some users have reported hearing a loud crunching noise, followed by the appearance of a crack. Still others have reported display malfunctions. 404 Media has also reported that early adopters are dealing with big fat creases down the middle of the$2 ,000 folding screen. TechCrunch reached out to Apple for comment and will update the story if it responds. The company told Bloomberg that it was aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units.

4:00Creating a functional, foldable phone has long been an ambition in Silicon Valley, but many of the models released so far have suffered from similar maladies. Now, Apple promised that it had cracked the code, but these early complaints suggest it may not have solved the problem after all. Some interface changes and nudges, like bright buttons urging you to subscribe in apps, are mildly annoying but easy to ignore. Others are so in your face that you want to throw your phone into a river. X's new push to get users to promote their posts is firmly in that latter category. You see, over the last 24 hours, a growing number of users have posted that a mysterious hand pointing to the promote button suddenly showed up while they were writing a post.

4:46This has irked people across the board. Now, with Halloween around the corner, it could be a prank meant to spook users, though X hasn't said so. and even users who wanted to promote a post and spend money might be scared off after seeing the hand. TBPN podcast president Dylan Abrascato said that this engagement trick was the most Nikita-coded thing I've ever seen, a nod to the growth tactics associated with Nikita Beer, ex's former head of product. Beer left the platform in August after almost a year at the helm. On Monday, Beer's former boss and ex-head of products for Snap and Discord, Peter Sellis, posted that he has taken over as X's product chief.

5:28It's unclear if the hand this sales is doing. We have reached out to X for a comment and we'll update our story if we hear back. This episode is brought to you by Simplify. Your nest egg is more than something to continually build. At some point, you should put it to work in generating income. Bonds can leave income seekers wanting more. Stocks can mean taking on more risk. XV seeks to offer a different approach. Meet the Simplify Target 15 distribution ETF, ticker XV. XV is designed for income-seeking investors looking for higher income potential than traditional bonds, reduced downside risk compared with stocks, and a targeted 15 % annualized distribution rate paid monthly.

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6:37If you could have 1 million followers on any social media platform, which would you choose? Now there is a correct answer, and it's YouTube, assuming you'd like to get paid for your work. But Instagram's latest update could upend YouTube's long-held position as the most lucrative platform for creators if only Instagram plays its cards right. You see, Instagram announced on Monday that it's testing a new type of video upload that will allow creators to share features, videos up to 90 minutes long. After years in which every social platform, even LinkedIn, aggressively pursued short-form videos, this is a notable shift in strategy for Instagram.

7:16You see, short-form vertical video content has defined the internet of the 2020s. But the creators behind these clips don't actually make money directly from platforms like Instagram. The meta-owned platform has some monetization tools like subscriptions, but it doesn't typically pay creators on a per-view basis. YouTube's payment model is more straightforward. There are ads on videos, and creators enrolled in YouTube's partner program get 55 % of the ad revenue YouTube earns from their videos. That adds up. The platform said last year that it paid more than$100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies in the previous four years.

7:54Instagram and TikTok haven't been able to replicate YouTube's model with short-form content, which is inherently trickier to monetize than longer videos because there's less room to place ads. Many creators see those accounts more like promotional arms for their YouTube channels than meaningful drivers of revenue. Instagram's encouraging creators to upload longer videos, as it already did eight years ago with the now defunct IGTV. It's possible that its parent company Meta, which makes its billions on advertising, will put ads in those long-form videos too. If Meta does add ads, could Instagram meaningfully compete with a YouTube partner program for the first time?

8:34It's too early to share a long-term monetization model, but we're exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives, a meta spokesperson told TechCrunch. All right, not a particularly promising answer, but it's also not a no. And folks, that's your Daily Crunch. Today's stories were reported by Amanda Silberling, Lucas Ropik, Ivan Mehta, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists. We'll see you here tomorrow. Same Tech Time, same Crunch channel. And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.

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