Instagram May Launch Standalone App for its TikTok-like Reels Videos

Instagram is reportedly considering launching a standalone app for Reels, its short-form vertical videos inspired by TikTok. According to a report from The Information (paywalled), Instagram head Adam Mosseri discussed the project with the company’s staff this week. However, a standalone Instagram video app isn’t exactly a new idea.

You may remember that Instagram launched IGTV back in 2018, a new app for watching vertical videos up to an hour long. That app was discontinued back in 2022, two years after Instagram launched its TikTok-inspired Reels format.

Instagram Reels were originally limited to 15 seconds, but Instagram later raised that limit to 90 seconds. Following the uncertainty regarding the future of TikTok in the US, Instagram added support for Reels up to three minutes long in January.

“We still are focused on short form video over long form, but hopefully this gives creators a bit more room to be creative,” Mosseri said at the time. Previously, only reels up to 90 seconds were eligible for recommendation by the Instagram algorithm. In January, Instagram also added a feed of Reels your friends have liked or added notes to in the app’s Reels tab.

Instagram is probably right to focus on Reels right now as the company saw global video time on the app grow by double-digit percentages year-over-year in Q4 2024. The company is also now seeing users resharing Reels over 4.5 billion times every day across Instagram and Facebook.

Long-time Instagram users are probably frustrated to see what used to be a simple photo sharing evolve into a TikTok clone, however. And it’s not clear if a standalone Instagram Reels app would result in the main app showing fewer videos to users.

While Instagram may or may not go forward with this standalone Reels app, the company will launch a new Edits app on iOS and Android in March. Edits is a free video editor designed to compete with ByteDance’s popular CapCut app, which is also available on the desktop.