Instagram is rapidly closing the gap between its platform and TikTok, as part of its ongoing plot to swallow the politically embattled video app whole.
The Meta-owned platform launched a few new features for Instagram Reels creators on April 14, including new metrics, giveaways, and a space designed for users to “find inspiration” through trending audio and hashtags.
“We strive to make Instagram a home for creators like you to express your creativity, connect with your audience, and earn a living,” Meta said in a blog post about the announcement(Opens in a new tab). “Today we’re announcing improvements to Reels – to let you do what you do best.”
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Creators can now see the most popular songs and audio on Reels, along with analytics on how many times the audio has been used. This is a feature that TikTok has had for some time and has potentially led to the success (or lack of success) of musicians and songs on the app(Opens in a new tab). To find trending audio on Instagram Reels, creators go to their professional dashboard and scroll down to “Reels Trends”, and all the top audio and hashtags will be served. For example today, April 16, the top audio on Instagram Reels is Doechii’s “What It Is (Block Boy)” with 25,500 reels, and the highest hashtag is #coachella, with 5.2 million reels. .
In addition to the trending songs and audio, users and creators will now be able to see the most trending topics and hashtags – important tools for creators to reach a wider audience. Creators can also edit video clips, audio, stickers and text on a newly unified editing screen, and they have access to total watch time, average watch time, number of new subscribers you’ve received from your Reels and which fans have sent you gifts, all of which are stats that were previously unavailable to creators. Many of these tools were already available on the app’s competitor, TikTok.
Instagram is poised to overtake TikTok since the ByteDance-owned platform gained traction in the US, so that’s nothing new. But it comes at a time when TikTok is struggling to fight bans. Government lawmakers around the world have implemented various bans on the app due to fears that TikTok is providing user data to the Chinese government.
