While commuting through the metro or relaxing on the bed, scrolling through Instagram reels is one activity that we can’t hold ourselves back from. But this experience just got better. Ever come across a cute golden retriever’s video and felt like keeping it with you even without internet connectivity? Well, Instagram has answered our prayers. Now, users can download their favourite reel and keep it with them on their mobile devices. This allows one to download the reels that are posted by others and share them outside the app.
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TikTok, which got banned in India in June 2020 along with other Chinese apps due to national security concerns, has also had this feature for years now, and this became one of the reasons for its success, where users download the videos and share them across other platforms. These videos contain TikTok’s watermark, making the video distinct.
Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, announced the feature over their broadcast channel. On Tuesday, Mosseri announced that users in the U.S. would be able to download the reels and keep them in their camera rolls. Users will be able to download the videos by clicking the share button and then selecting the download option.
However, the reels that are accessible on public accounts will only be available for downloading. Further, public accounts will have the option to turn off the ability to download the reels. Mosseri, in his announcement, did not mention if the reels were going to have an Instagram watermark like TikTok videos do. Nevertheless, the picture posted by him showed that the videos will have a watermark that indicates their belonging to the platform. In the past, Instagram has given users the option to download their own reels from the draft without the watermark. Mosseri said in his message, “Worth mentioning, Reels shared by private accounts can’t be downloaded, and public accounts can turn off the ability for people to download their reels in Account Settings.”
Back in 2021, Instagram stopped promoting content from TikTok that had the latter’s watermark, or perhaps videos with any watermarks. Then, in August, YouTube rolled out its YouTube Shorts with a watermark and allowed users to download them with the same. The move came as an attempt to cease cross-platform sharing. Now that Instagram has also introduced a similar feature, it is trying to persuade users to watch more content on the platform.
Reels have been an essential aspect of Instagram’s growth. In the last few quarters, it has become the key factor that drove growth and revenue for Meta. Mark Zuckerberg noted that reels are the reason why the time spent on Instagram grew by 24%. He marked this during the Q1 2023 earnings call.
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During the call, Meta CFO Susan Li said, “We’re very pleased with what we’ve seen Reels drive in terms of incremental engagement on the platform so far.” Li further added that “it’s clear that people value short-term video” on the platform. She further exclaimed that the platform is experiencing much more sharing when it comes to reels.
This new feature will be rolled out in the U.S. first. It is not available in India.
