If you haven’t noticed, Instagram is pushing Reels, its in-app TikTok clone, really hard. Since Reels launched in 2020, the Meta-owned image-sharing app has been practically begging people to use the feature (and not just repost their own TikToks there). Whether you’ve created a reel or not, soon you won’t have a choice: in the coming weeks, if you post a video under 15 minutes, it’ll be a reel. Here’s what you need to know.
What are New Reels?
Instagram has been flirting with this idea for a few months. In January, the company confirmed that it had begun testing a possible pivot-to-Reels for all videos, pushing the change to just a few users. At the time, a spokesperson said the change was “part of our efforts to simplify and improve the video experience on Instagram.”
Reels are short videos that users can edit with special effects, filters, and separate audio tracks. Essentially, they’re like TikToks: there are underlying audio clips that users can lip-sync or react to, there are app-specific trends, and there’s an element of discovery. Until this new change went into effect, Reels had their own channels in the Discovery section of the app and appeared in a unique tab on each creator’s profile, separate from other video offerings such as posts from IGTV. (IGTV posts will still be an option for any video longer than 15 minutes.) Reels, unlike other videos, take up the entire screen while playing.
There are numerous in-app editing features for Reels, including the ability to speed up and slow down videos and edit clips together. This sets it apart from, say, the History feature or even the old way of posting videos to the grid. Like TikTok, any original audio a user adds to a reel becomes an audio clip that other “grammers” can use in their own reels. This is important later.
Other users will be able to use your audio Reel
Any video under 15 minutes will now be a reel, although videos posted before the change took effect will remain in their regular format. All these videos and reels will be available in a “video” tab on a profile. Importantly, any video content included in a carousel does not become a reel; the carousels remain independent of the video tab and remain in the normal page grid.
The big thing here is that anyone with a public account will now face the possibility of their original audio being used by other people on their reels, so be aware of that. Instagram also said in announcing the change that anyone with a public account is now eligible to view their Reels and recommend them to more people through the Discover page. Private users, on the other hand, will only see their Reels (and audio clips) by followers. One thing that public users can have control over is remixes, which are the Reels equivalent of TikTok duets. In the settings, you can turn off the ability for other people to remix your Reel, removing the option for them to repost your content with their own addition or reaction.
In the coming weeks, an expanded Remix feature will also allow users to remix public photos to create a reel or add their reaction to an existing reel after it plays, rather than together while it’s playing.
While Instagram is clearly taking a bite out of TikTok, it also borrowed a feature from another popular app, BeReal: With the new Dual feature, users can record with their front and back cameras simultaneously, showing their content and their reaction at the same time.