Apps tend to trend every now and then, and for a while back, Snapchat was one of the more popular apps around. While it is still very popular, there is a new-ish app that has kind of taken over in the form of TikTok. If you’re unfamiliar, TikTok is basically an app where users can lip-sync and dance to pre-recorded music and share those videos online.
Now, a lot of TikTok videos have found their way onto Instagram, and it looks like Instagram has decided that maybe it’s time to make their own. The company has since officially announced the launch of their new app in the form of Reels, where at its core and essence it is more or less the same as TikTok.
There will be a catalogue of music and songs that users can choose from, or alternatively, users can even borrow audio from another person’s video to make it into a remix, joke, or meme. Instagram director of product management Robby Stein credits apps like Musically and TikTok for helping make this kind of app popular, but insists that Reels is different.
According to Stein, “No two products are exactly the same, and at the end of the day, sharing video with music is a pretty universal idea we think everyone might be interested in using. The focus has been on how to make this a unique format for us.” That being said, Reels is currently only available in Brazil but we expect it should eventually find its way to more markets.