Instagram’s Reels May Get Its Own App

Instagram is reportedly considering spinning its Reels characteristic into a standalone short-form video app to return advantage of TikTok’s uncertain early successful nan US. Instagram caput Adam Mosseri was overheard discussing nan plans pinch portion this week according to an anonymous guidelines cited by The Information.

The Reels app is reportedly information of a Meta inaugural code-named Project Ray which intends to thief Instagram amended compete against TikTok. Plans spot improving really Instagram contented is recommended and bringing much three-minute-long Reels videos to users successful nan US.

TikTok has astir 170 cardinal US users and still faces a prohibition aft being fixed a 75-day clasp by President Donald Trump successful January. During TikTok’s impermanent removal from app stores past month, Instagram released Edits — a blatant riff connected nan CapCut video editing app owned by TikTok’s genitor institution ByteDance — and allegedly tried to lure creators to its ain level pinch complaint bonuses.

It’s unclear if Reels would still beryllium integrated into Instagram if it does get its ain abstracted app, but a dedicated short-form video level would beryllium personification to nan curated scrolling acquisition provided by TikTok. This would beryllium Meta’s 2nd effort to motorboat a nonstop TikTok competitor aft releasing nan standalone video-sharing app Lasso successful 2018 — and later shutting nan app down successful 2020 to attraction connected Reels.