Instagram Reels Makes Its Official U.S. Debut: Here’s What You Need to Know

As promised in mid-July, Reels, Instagram’s TikTok clone feature, officially rolled out in the U.S. this week, along with over 50 other countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan and the U.K. [kickout id="1"] [kickout id="2"] It hardly seems to be a coincidence that Instagram is making its push with Reels at the same time that the video-creation platform it drew inspiration from, TikTok, is under extreme heat in the U.S. Instagram vice president of product Vishal Shah tried to downplay the timing, saying in a press call earlier this week that while it happens to be coincidental in some ways, rolling out Reels has always been part of Instagram’s plan. Shah said, “We had the sense that the product had potential. Reels is just an acceleration of what people are excited to do on Instagram. TikTok has done some really amazing work in the space. It didn’t invent short-form video, but it innovated on it. Others are definitely tapping into this format. We think our version of this product is unique to Instagram.” President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday night compelling U.S. businesses and citizens to cease transactions with TikTok parent ByteDance starting in 45 days. TikTok responded by threatening to take the administration to court. TikTok has been facing heat due to ByteDance’s Chinese ties, although ByteDance claims to be headquartered in the Cayman Islands. In late June, India banned 59 applications with ties to China, including TikTok—a major blow, as India was the top country for TikTok downloads, with 46.6 million just in February, according to app analytics provider Sensor Tower. Not surprisingly, Facebook swooped in and rolled out Reels in India in early July. Reels enables Instagram users to record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos, complete with audio, effects and other new creative tools. “There’s a lot of appetite for short-form video on Instagram,” Shah said. “In the last month, 45% of videos uploaded to feed were 15 seconds or less.” Reels can be shared with followers through feed, and people with public accounts can make them available to the wider Instagram community via a new space in the Explore tab. Instagrammers can access Reels at the bottom of the Instagram Camera, where they will also be able to take advantage of its various editing tools. Songs can be selected from Instagram’s music library, or users can record with their own original audio. When Instagrammers opt for the latter, their audio will be attributed to them and, if their accounts are public, other users can create Reels with that audio by selecting “Use Audio” from their Reels. [kickout id="3"] Augmented reality effects from Instagram and creators around the world can be added, enabling people to record multiple clips with different effects. [kickout id="4"] A timer can be set to enable hands-free recording. An alignment tool enables people to line up objects from previous clips before recording new ones, in order to create seamless transitions for moments such as changing outfits or adding new friends into the Reel. Users have the option of speeding up or slowing down parts of the audio or video, helping them stay on a beat or create slow-motion videos. Instagram said Reels can be recorded in a series of clips, all at once or by uploading existing videos from users’ galleries. Once Reels are done, Instagrammers with public accounts can share them to a dedicated place in Explore and post them to their feeds. [kickout id="5"] [kickout id="6"] [kickout id="7"] When Reels feature certain songs, hashtags or effects, they may also appear on dedicated pages that appear when users click on those respective elements. People with private accounts can share Reels to their feeds so that only followers see them, and other people will not be able to use original audio from those Reels or share them with other users who are not followers. Reels will also appear in a separate tab on the profiles of the users who create them. And they can be shared via Stories, to close friends only or via Instagram Direct messages. When shared to Stories, they will be treated like Stories: They will not be shared to Explore or appear on profiles, and they will disappear after 24 hours. Shah noted that Reels was originally a product built into Stories, but it found that users did not want to put the effort into creating Reels only to have them disappear in 24 hours. For viewers, the Reels feed in Explore delivers a customized selection of content from across Instagram, and users can like, comment or share Reels with friends. [kickout id="8"] Some Reels will include a Featured label, which means they were among a selection of public Reels chosen by Instagram to highlight. Users whose Reels are featured in Explore will receive notifications. There is no direct monetization play for Reels as it debuts in the U.S. and elsewhere. Shah said Instagram is experimenting with different monetization options across its platform and engaging with creators in the same way it does with its other products. He added that Instagram will sometimes help creators with production costs early on, and it is always open to monetization, but it has no explicit plans on that front for Reels to start. A test of what was then called Clips, a new Instagram Camera feature that mimicked TikTok’s functionality, first appeared last September, and developer and blogger Jane Manchun Wong said at the time that it appeared that Instagram had been working on Clips for quite some time. Last November, Instagram began testing the feature with Android and iOS users in Brazil, calling it Cenas in that country, and director of product Robby Stein said at the time, “We’re excited to test Reels, a new Stories format that gives our community a way to create entertaining, short-form videos with music. Instagram Stories has always been a home for expression, and we believe this new format has huge potential to enable more creativity for people.” Things were quiet on the Reels front for a few months, but they ramped up in June, when Instagram officially began testing the feature in France and Germany. This test also included a significant change: Instagram users had previously been able to share Reels solely within Stories, but dedicated spaces for Reels were added to profiles and to the Explore tab. Facebook made another attempt to mimic TikTok’s functionality with Lasso, a stand-alone application released in November 2018 by the Facebook NPE Team, but Lasso was shuttered July 10. Shah said Lasso was a new stand-alone app that needed to build an audience, while Reels being built into Instagram gives people a way in through a product they already use and understand. All of this led up to the mid-July statement previewing this week’s rollout. “Instagram continues to be a place for people to connect with friends, family, people they care about and interests,” Shah said. “Instagram is also a home for entertainment. Reels is going to be really important for the future of entertainment on Instagram. It’s great that there are other platforms people can choose from. Competition helps everyone get better.” [kickout id="9"] [kickout id="11"] [kickout id="12"]