Instagram released Reels because they saw an opportunity to grab TikTok’s market share in the United States and beyond. As the regulatory screws tighten around Chinese-owned TikTok, some large platform was bound to release their own equivalent, so Facebook-owned Instagram was a natural fit to eat up this social media market share.

What Reels does is simple and compelling. You can record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects and new creative tools, one of which I will discuss in some detail. You can share Reels with your followers on Feed, and, if you have a public account, make them available to the wider Instagram community through a new space in your search (Explore).