TikTok, the Chinese video app that is very popular among teens around the world, mocked Reels, the new feature launched by Instagram.
“Well this looks familiar,” the TikTok account wrote on Twitter, following the launch of the new feature of the Facebook-owned app, which does not hide similarities to its Chinese counterpart.
well… this looks familiar 🤔😉 https://t.co/V8GyRSXkPu
— TikTok US (@tiktok_us) August 6, 2020
What is Instagram Reels?
Reels is a new format that offers Instagram users the ability to create and discover edited short videos of up to 15 seconds, available to those who use the platform in 50 countries it has been launched.
The Instagram Reels function, which can already be seen in the app update on Android and iOS, will allow you to create fifteen-second videos to which you can add various effects, filters and audios, as well as share them with your followers.
- What is Instagram Reels, how does it work and how to upload videos?
- Instagram launched Reels feature, short 15-second videos to compete with TikTok
It is a new short-form video editing tool that adds to the well-known Stories and IGTV (Instagram TV), and stands out for offering more ways to express yourself creatively and share what people consider important, be it a fun dance with music or raising awareness about social causes, as they clarify from the social network.
Reels is special because at the same time you can share with friends and followers and also be discovered by the huge, diverse and global community of Instagram by sharing in “Explore”.
The social network officially implemented this new function last July in India, in response to the void left by the Chinese application TikTok, recently banned by the Indian government in the middle of a diplomatic crisis between New Delhi and Beijing.
India was the fourth country to test Reels after Germany, France and last November it was Brazil’s turn. Exactly the experience in the neighboring country served the social network to polish this function after a year of work.
The competition with TikTok
Reels is Mark Zuckerberg’s response to stop the great growth that the Chinese social network has had in the last year, which has reached 800 million users and is now also facing the threat of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to ban the application in USA for security reasons.
- Trump bans TikTok: executive order signed
- Microsoft has an intention to buy Tiktok
- China accuses US about TikTok with theft
This announcement coincided in time with Microsoft’s interest in acquiring TikTok, a situation that Instagram does not want to speculate about.
