Instagram's rival to TikTok will come to the US in early August

• Facebook is planning to bring its competitor to TikTok — called Reels — to Instagram users in the US in early August, an Instagram spokesperson told Business Insider.
• Reels, which has already debuted in India and other select countries, will live inside of Instagram Stories as an option for sharing short-form video content similar to that on TikTok.
• Beijing-based TikTok first came to the US in 2018 and has grown into an overwhelmingly dominant social platform, outperforming US-based apps that have attracted younger audiences, like Snapchat and Instagram.
• Instagram's planned US debut of Reels comes as TikTok's future in the country remains uncertain. The Trump administration recently said it's considering banning the Chinese app in the US, opening the door for US tech companies to roll out new features catered to the TikTok audience.

Facebook will soon debut its competitor to TikTok's popular short-video format to US Instagram users as the Trump administration weighs a country-wide ban on the viral Chinese app.

Instagram plans to roll out Reels, a new format that will live inside of the app's Stories feature, to the US in early August, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. Like TikTok, Reels will allow users to record and edit short-form videos with audio and music soundtracks.

Instagram users will be able to create and share Reels to their Stories, and access their short-form videos in a new, dedicated tab on their profiles. Public accounts will have their their videos shared on the app's Explore page, and can choose whether or not their Reels content appear on their profiles and in followers' Feeds.

As for similarities drawn between TikTok and Reels, an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement that "no two services are the same."

"TikTok specifically has harnessed real consumer behavior, and done amazing things. We've also seen the rise of short-form video on Instagram, and think we can create something in a way that makes sense for our community," the spokesperson told Business Insider. "This responsiveness to consumer demand is competition at work and one of the longtime hallmarks of the tech sector. It increases choice, which is good for people."

Facebook first started testing Reels with users in Brazil in November, before rolling out last month to France and Germany. The early August rollout will include the United Kingdom and around 50 other countries, NBC News reported.

The debut of Instagram's Reels in the US — and in India in early July, as reported by Business Insider India — comes as concerns over TikTok's livelihood in both countries has created an opening in short-form video-sharing. The Indian government recently banned new user downloads of TikTok and other Chinese apps amid a bloody border dispute with China, where the app's parent company ByteDance is based.

TikTok has been facing greater scrutiny in the US over how much access and influence the Chinese government is afforded over user data and content moderation. Most recently, multiple government officials — including President Trump himself — have threatened banning the app. TikTok has more than 2 billion global downloads and an estimated US userbase at as high as 80 million.

So far, TikTok has been able to brush off lawmakers' calls for investigations and national security experts' warnings. In June, TikTok appointed a US-based CEO in June to try to distance itself from its Chinese roots. But the imminent threat of TikTok disappearing from the US has already signaled panic among users, and led tech companies to take advantage of the chaos to lure the app's loyal following to their competing platforms.

YouTube has started testing its in-app feature for short-form video with a "small group" of people, and developers have discovered Snapchat could be switching out its horizontal swiping motion for TikTok's signature vertical swipe. Smaller apps, like Byte, Triller, Likee, and Dubsmash, have also seen an increase in downloads, according to Reuters.