Instagram’s new short-form video format Reels has officially launched in Australia, granting local users the ability to create, edit, and share looping 15-second clips on the platform.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
As of Thursday morning, local creators can open the Instagram app, swipe through to the camera, and smash the Reels button next to the pre-existing Live and Story options.
From there, you can film new clips or upload footage from your gallery, edit the length and sequence of the video, slap on some audio, and send your creation live.
Reels won’t just live on your profile, though. Users with public accounts can flood the app’s redesigned Explore page with Reels content, allowing punters to share their masterpieces with the world.
If it all sounds familiar, you’re bang on.
Reels hits the Australian market in the wake of TikTok, which now counts some 1.6 local million users, and, until yesterday, existed under the spectre of an out-and-out ban.
Now that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed TikTok isn’t facing the chop in Australia over national security concerns, it’ll be interesting to see how Reels gets on.
Slapping Reels onto the existing Instagram platform feels like a leg up on its existing rivals, but it’ll take more than 15 seconds to tell if Instagram can emulate the culture which makes TikTok so powerful.
