Alessandro Paluzzi, a reverse engineer, discovered an early version of Templates in January, and marketing manager and influencer Josephine Hill has already used the tool. According to a screenshot shared by Hill in March, users can substitute their own video into preset frames and add their own music. According to Hill, this might spare users from needing to use third-party templates from sites like Canva or closely follow online tutorials to obtain a precise format.
The test comes as Instagram tries to lure more creators to Reels and address one of the platform’s major issues: TikTok reposts. Instagram declared last year that it would no longer promote Reels with TikTok watermarks, and earlier last week, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced that the platform would crack down even further by downranking reposts. Including templates in the mix could make it easier to create videos for Reels and encourage the creation of more original material.
