Can Instagram Reels be a potential replacement for TikTok?

by Mohan Ram
July 7, 20208 minutes

The recent ban on TikTok had made every social media platform to come up with a similar video sharing feature. Social media giant Facebook and its sister concern Instagram are the latest entrants to join this party. Instagram is currently testing a 15 secs fun video sharing feature known as Reels.

Instagram's latest Reels feature let's users create short 15 secs video with the existing catalog of music, or they can recreate someone else's reels. Users can share their Reels in stories, or they can even DM it to a specific person.

Instagram Reels is already available in Brazil, and they are currently testing this feature in India amidst the TikTok ban. Selected users have started receiving this feature in India. Many apps are pushing themselves to fit into the shoes of TikTok, but if Instagram nails this feature, they can easily capture the void space in the video-sharing platform due to the absence of TikTok.

TikTok has garnered millions of downloads in India, but recently it was banned by our Indian government owing to security concerns. Instagram will capitalize on the current situation to the fullest and will try to lure customers to its platform with Reels. Instagram Reels is an integrated feature in the app, and this gives the app an additional edge over the competitors as users need not download a separate app to use this feature.

According to a report from Business Insider, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that they have started testing Reels in India, and they will soon expand it to more countries in the future.

Facebook also recently shut down its TikTok-type app Lasso, as it reportedly shifts focus to Reels. As per reports, TikTok's parent company Bytedance has incurred a huge loss due to our government's recent ban on Chinese apps. To find out the full list of Chinese apps that were banned in India, click here.