Meta sees Reels as an important aspect of its apps, and the platform is rolling out some new features for the format on Facebook. For one thing, Facebook is extending the maximum length of Reels to 90 seconds, up from 60. Meta increased the Instagram Reels time limit to 90 seconds last July, but both fall someway short of the maximum length of a TikTok video, which currently stands at 10 minutes.
TikTok and Instagram Reels both have ways to sync clips with a song, and Facebook Reels is getting a similar feature called Grooves. Meta says this uses “visual beat technology” and that it automatically syncs and aligns motion with the beat of a song.
Elsewhere, Facebook will offer an easy way to generate Reels from your memories. You’ll also be able to take advantage of trending templates. This allows you to replace clips from an existing template with your own ones.
Meta claims Reels is its fastest-growing format. The number of Reels plays have more than doubled over the last year across Facebook and Instagram. The company says reshares of Reels have more than doubled on both platforms in the last 6 months too. Since August, users have been able to cross-post Reels between the apps.
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Kris Holt