If you haven’t noticed, Instagram is working extremely hard to promote Reels, its in-app TikTok clone. The Meta-owned picture-sharing app Reels has been pleading with users to use the function since since it launched in 2020. (and not just repost their own TikToks there). Whether you’ve actually made any Reels or not, you won’t have a choice for long: If you upload a video in the following few weeks that is under 15 minutes, it will be a Reel. What you should know is as follows, unfortunately.
What exactly are Reels?
For a few months, Instagram has been toying with the idea. The business acknowledged in January that it had begun testing a potential pivot-to-Reels for all videos, imposing the move on only a small number of users. The modification was “part of our efforts to simplify and improve the video experience on Instagram,” a spokeswoman claimed at the time.
Users can add additional effects, filters, and individual audio tracks to reels, which are brief films. They have many similarities with TikToks, including underlying audio snippets that users can lip-synch to or respond to, app-specific trends, and a discoverability component. Reels were previously shown in distinct tabs on each creator’s profile and had their own feeds in the Discovery part of the app, separate from other video content like IGTV posts. Any video longer than 15 minutes will still have the option of being posted on IGTV. Reels occupy the entire screen when playing, unlike other types of videos.
Reels has a tonne of in-app editing options, such the capacity to accelerate and decelerate videos as well as combine clips. This distinguishes it from previous methods of publishing films to the grid, such as the Story feature. Similar to TikTok, any original audio that is added to a Reel by a user becomes an audio clip that other “grammers” can use on their own Reels. Later on, this will matter.
Your Reel audio will be accessible to other users.
Reels are now required for all videos under 15 minutes, while older videos will continue to be available in their original format. All of those videos and Reels will be accessible in the profile’s “video” tab. It’s important to note that any video content that is featured in a carousel does not change into a Reel; instead, the carousels continue to exist separately from your video tab in the standard grid on your page.
Be aware that anyone with a public account will now have to deal with the prospect that their original audio will be utilised by others in their Reels, which is the most prominent aspect of this. In addition, anyone with a public account is now qualified to have their Reels seen and suggested to more people via the Discover page, according to Instagram, which also announced the move. Private users, on the other hand, will only have followers view their Reels (and audio snippets). Remixes, which are the Reels counterpart of TikTok’s duets, are one aspect of Reels that users who interact with the public can control. You can disable the possibility for other users to remix your reel in the settings, preventing them from reposting your footage with their own additions or reactions.
In the next weeks, an enhanced Remix capability will also enable users to Remix openly available images to make a Reel or add their response to an already-existing Reel after it has already started playing, as opposed to side-by-side while it is playing.
While Instagram is unmistakably copying TikTok, it also copied a feature from BeReal, another well-known app: With the new Dual function, users may record using both their front and back cameras at the same time, presenting their content and reaction at the same time.