Instagram entered talks with content creators and publishers with a view to offering vertical videos of up to an hour in length, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The app maker aims to monetise so-called long-form video, a move which would be in keeping with parent Facebook’s focus. CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated the biggest trend for Facebook products over the next three years will be the growth of video.

In 2017 the social media giant commissioned original, profesionally produced videos for a Watch tab on its core platform.

Instagram launched Stories in 2016, a Snapchat clone feature which lets users create a slideshow of photos and videos of up to 15 seconds which expires after 24 hours.

Stories is one of the app’s most popular features, with around 300 million daily users. The app itself has 800 million users.

In the main newsfeed users can publish videos that are up to a minute long.