Instagram adds TikTok-style feature ‘Reels’ – but only SOME people can see it
INSTAGRAM'S TikTok competing feature "Reels" is expanding to new countries.
This follows its launch in Brazil last year and will see Reels available in France and Germany.
Reels is an Instagram feature that lets users record short 15-second videos set to audio.
They can then be shared on the platform with the idea that they may go viral.
This is similar to TikTok as it gives users easy ways to make creative videos.
The plan is for Reels to be shared on Instagram Stories as well as more permanently on feeds.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, has previously tried to jump on the TikTok trend with a video app called Lasso.
However, this doesn't appear to have been very popular.
Adding a feature like Reels to Instagram is a good way to attract the over one billion people who already use the app for photo posting.
Instagram hasn't said when it plans to globally release the Reels feature.
We also don't know when it may be coming to the UK or the US.
This isn't the first time that Instagram has appeared to copy a feature from a different app.
Snapchat fans accused the photo sharing app of taking the Stories concept from Snap.
TIKTOK: A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE WORLD'S MOST DOWNLOADED APP
TikTok lets users create and share short videos with music and camera effects.
It is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, founded by the entrepreneur Zhang Yiming.
The $75 billion conglomerate acquired the Musical.ly app in 2017 and merged it with TikTok, bringing millions of new users.
It is the world’s most downloaded iPhone app – with nearly 800 million downloads across the globe, according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower.
Facebook has taken notice of TikTok's rising popularity, and launched a competitor app called Lasso in November last year.
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In other news, Fortnite is hosting a major Party Royale event tonight.
A man is suing Twitch for ‘showing so many scantily-clad female gamers he injured his penis’.
And, Instagram has come under fire after researchers found the app pushes semi-naked photos to the top of news feeds.
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