Instagram is reportedly considering turning its Reels feature into a standalone short video app to capitalize on TikTok‘s uncertain future in the US. An anonymous source cited by The Information said that Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri discussed these plans with employees this week.
The Reels app is reportedly part of a meta-initiative codenamed Project Ray, which aims to help Instagram better compete with TikTok. Plans include improving Instagram’s content recommendations and increasing the number of three-minute Reels videos for US users.
TikTok has about 170 million users in the US and is still facing a ban after President Donald Trump delayed it for 75 days in January. During TikTok’s temporary removal from app stores last month, Instagram released the Edits app – a blatant riff on the CapCut video editing app owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance – and allegedly tried to lure creators to its own platform with cash bonuses.
It is not known whether Reels will be integrated into Instagram if it gets its own separate app, but a dedicated platform for short-form videos would be closer to the curated scrolling experience provided by TikTok. This would be Meta’s second attempt to launch a direct competitor to TikTok after releasing a standalone video sharing app, Lasso, in 2018 and then closing that app in 2020 to focus on Reels.
