Social media platform parent company Meta have announced the release of a number of new editing tools for Facebook and Instagram Reels, the short-form videos that users can post on their accounts.
According to a blog post on Meta’s website, these updates, which are already available, include the long-awaited introduction of stickers, polls and quizzes to Instagram stories, a feature which had been long-awaited among users.
Additionally, now the duration of Reels has been extend to 90 seconds so that “people can express their creativity.” Instagram will also give users the option of importing their own audio to their Reels rather than selecting from the tracks that are already available on the platform and there will also be a series of templates for people who are just getting started in making their own videos.
Facebook seems to be taking things one step further, adding a number of tools to their Creator Studio, such as a video clipping editor which will let users make Reels out of their pre-existing videos, and a Sound Sync tool that will give them the chance to add their own tracks to their short clips.
Creator Studio will now be available on web browsers, as well as iOS and Android systems, giving people the option of scheduling their stories and Reels.
Game streamers will also be given the opportunity to make use of Meta’s fancy new tools, as the company says that thanks to their new editing tools, they’ll be able to create 90 second clips directly from their live content.
All these new changes are part of Meta’s strategy to regain some of the audience it lost due to the meteoric rise of TikTok. This, alongside certain other factors such as the war in Ukraine and the policy changes introduced by Apple and Google, caused a significant drop in Meta’s financial growth, forcing the company to pull the breaks on its development and investment plans. This made them pause all hiring for the rest of the year and shut down some of their Reality Labs studios.
