The new Reels video editing capabilities from Meta bring their creator experience closer to TikTok’s

Meta announced in a blog post on Thursday that it is globally rolling out new creative tools for its TikTok competitor, Reels, on Instagram and Facebook. The new capabilities will make it easier for producers to avoid using TikTok to edit short clips and will encourage users to create unique content utilizing Reels, which is something the Instagram team is very interested in.

Instagram Reels now allows users to add audio from their camera roll to their reel video. Reels now allows 90-second videos and is expanding its interactive “stickers” to include polls, quizzes, and emoji.

Instagram is also routinely releasing templates that allow users to easily recreate the same design of another video they’ve seen, which might hasten the spread of popular meme styles.

 

 

Facebook Reels, which debuted in February on Facebook’s iOS and Android apps, is now available from the PC desktop, with tools available in the site’s “Creator Studio” enabling users to create and edit videos from the comfort of their own chair. According to Meta, the Creator Studio will also make it easy to test multiple formats.

Creators will also be able to trim Livestream clips into 60-second chunks. In addition to being available on desktop, Facebook Reels now offers a handful of new audio features, including voiceovers for videos and a SoundSync option that can automatically sync videos to the beat of a song of someone’s choosing. Text-to-speech is also supported within posted videos on Facebook Reels.

Meta’s quick implementation of TikTok-like capabilities is predictable. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri recently declared that the platform is no longer a “square photo-sharing app.” However, it was clear quickly after Reels debuted on Instagram in 2020 that more work was required to become a viable competitor. Instagram recently began testing NFT support in the app, a full-screen Instagram feed, and even the removal of the recent tab from tagged content searches.