Instagram introduces its short-video feature ‘Reels’ following Tik-Tok Ban in India

With the ban on TikTok creating a huge vacuum for the 15-second videos in the Indian Internet space, Facebook-owned Instagram on Wednesday (8 July) announced the extension of the testing of Reels which allows users to record, edit and share short multi-clip videos, to India.

Vishal Shah, VP of Product, Facebook says the product comes from the realisation that 45 per cent of videos on Instagram are 15 seconds or less. “We also realised that stories are not the only place where they wanted to share these videos as they wanted them to stick on for longer and be distributed beyond their followers,” he said in the video call.

The new feature lets users shoot video, add filters and music from Instagram’s catalogue and share it beyond the platform. Users will be able to share Reels in Explore, and also on Feed with followers. There will be no monetisation avenues for now.

The feature will start rolling out to users in India from 7.30 pm from Wednesday and at the onset, will be populated with content from a diverse set of public figures and creators, such as Ammy Virk, Gippy Grewal, Komal Pandey, Arjun Kanungo, Jahnavi Dasetty aka Mahathalli, Indrani Biswas aka Wondermunna, Kusha Kapila, Radhika Bangia, RJ Abhinav and Ankush Bhaguna.

India is the fourth country, after Brazil, Germany and France, where this new format is being tested.

This entertainment experience builds on the work done in the past year to enable expression, such as the vast library of music available on the platform; the Spark AR effects on Instagram that enable more creation and expression on the platform; and the ‘Born on Instagram’ programme, which has led to discovery and growth of creators from all across India.