Facebook's attempt to compete with TikTok — a new short-form video format on Instagram — is expected to roll out in early August to users in the US.
Reels, which will live inside of the app's Stories feature, allows users to record and edit short-form videos with audio and music soundtracks — akin to what users already do on TikTok. Facebook first started testing Reels with users in Brazil in November, before rolling out last month to France and Germany.
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. In the US, the Trump administration is weighing a country-wide ban on TikTok due to its ties to China, where the app's parent company ByteDance is based. Nevertheless, TikTok is wildly popular: It has more than 2 billion global downloads and an estimated US userbase at as high as 80 million.
Several tech companies have come out with apps similar to TikTok, but no platform has yet to successfully rival TikTok's viral reach. But it looks like Facebook is putting its full weight behind Reels, and trying to capitalize on Instagram's popularity among a younger audience and success with copying other platform's big features — most notably, Snapchat Stories.
Instagram has been tight-lipped thus far about how Reels is being received in other countries, so there's not a lot we know about the new format ahead of its US launch. Here's everything we know so far about how Instagram Reels will work: