Tik Tok has certainly made the news of late with President Trump making it known that the extremely popular video-sharing app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, could be banned in the U.S. unless companies like Microsoft purchase its U.S. business by September 15.
Facebook isn’t waiting around for a TikTok ban to potentially take place. It has released Reels, a new feature on Instagram, its photo-sharing app.
Similar to TikTok, Reels users can make short videos set to music, add filters, and easily share them.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 3 billion people using one of its apps, but TikTok has skyrocketed in the past few years as an extremely popular social media platform for teens and millennials, which of course has seriously captured Facebook’s attention.
Reels is another Facebook product or feature that closely resembles other companies’ services, like stories, similar to Snapchat’s Stories, and Messenger Rooms, a potential competitor to Zoom – which exploded amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For creators looking to use Instagram Reels as a new way to build a following, Instagram has “evolved” its Explore page to create a specific landing area for Reels at the top of the screen that people can vertically scroll through, much like TikTok’s “For You Page.”
Stories is designed as a social feature, with short snippets people want to share with their followers. Reels is designed with more of an entertainment focus, an area that Instagram wants to really grow.
Positively Osceola will be doing some Reels exploring, and we’ll report our take on this new and exciting Instagram feature!
