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The Instagram team at Meta is reportedly considering turning Reels into a separate app, according to a report.
The publisher, The Information, reports that Adam Mosseri who is the Head of Instagram told staff about the potential project this week. They cite an anonymous source who was said to have heard Mosseri speaking.
Instagram Reels was first introduced back in 2020, with it offering people the chance to post short-form video content on their accounts and it represented the platform’s pivot to video.
Now, the feature is extremely popular with this style of content being utilized by many accounts including celebrities, business owners, and influencers. It has become a classic way to use Instagram.
Before this was brought out, the platform was mainly filled with still images as this – along with Stories – was some of the only features available at the time.
A separate Reel Instagram app could offer more competition for TikTok
A move to create a completely different app could suggest some competition for TikTok if it were to come to fruition. This app, created by parent company ByteDance, has continued to capture the attention of audiences daily.
It also comes at a time when the future of TikTok remains relatively unknown. In January, President Donald Trump granted a 75-day extension on the law requiring the company to sell or ban the platform in the United States.
While this gave the Chinese-owned company a bit of breathing room, as the app re-entered the US app stores after temporary removal, its future is not guaranteed. The extension concludes on April 5, 2025.
If the reports are true, it wouldn’t be the first time Instagram has launched a separate app for video content as it previously ran IGTV. First announced in 2018, this was a video app that focused on long-form vertical content.
The videos on this platform could be up to an hour long, but the company pulled the plug on the app in March of 2022.
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram
