Instagram for TV is now live on Samsung smart TVs across the United States. Meta switched it on this week, and it covers Samsung sets from the 2020 model year and newer. That puts the Reels app in front of one of the country’s biggest TV install bases.
The move also completes a fast rollout. The app first arrived on Amazon Fire TV in December 2025. It then landed on Google TV in February 2026. With Samsung added, Meta says it now reaches the majority of connected-TV devices in the US.
What you can do right now
At its core, the app brings Reels to the big screen. The videos are grouped into interest-based channels rather than one endless scroll. Examples include new music, sports highlights, hidden travel gems and trending moments. As a result, a room full of people can land on something everyone wants to watch.
Several other features are rolling out too. You can now watch Stories on the TV. Meta is also testing the ability to cast Reels straight from your phone. On top of that, it is trialing a dedicated section for horizontal video. That is a quiet admission that vertical phone clips do not always suit a wide screen.
The bigger play: episodic series and live
Channels and casting are only the start. Meta says it is also exploring longer-form creator content. On top of that, it wants episodic series that unfold across multiple episodes. It is even testing Live on TV, which would push live creator broadcasts to the big screen for the first time.
That ambition is clearly aimed at the living room rather than the phone. “As we explore longer-form, episodic, and live formats, we’re working closely with creators to understand what works best on TV,” Instagram said. In other words, the company wants creators making shows, not just clips.
A living-room land grab
The timing is not subtle. Instagram is chasing the same big-screen attention that YouTube already dominates. It is not alone in reshaping short video for the couch, either. We saw a similar shift when Peacock turned Bravo into a phone-style vertical feed. Connected TVs also keep gaining app smarts, as Gemini’s arrival on Google TV showed.
For now, much of this is still a test, so the features may shift before they settle. Even so, the direction is hard to miss. Instagram no longer wants to be only the thing you open on your phone. Increasingly, it wants to live on the screen you already leave running in the background.
