Where do you spend your time on the Instagram app? If you responded with Reels, you’re not alone.
According to Instagram’s chief Adam Mosseri, Reels now account for 50% of all time spent on Instagram. As mobile-first vertical video continues to dominate on social media, it’s never been more important to find new, creative ways to engage your audience with original video content.
With the festive shopping season in full swing, it seems that the Meta team are looking to keep this spike in engagement continuing into 2024 with the launch of exciting new content creation tools.
From in-app Reels editing features to new text-to-speech voices and even enhanced Reels insights, these latest Instagram content creation tools seem to have a clear goal in mind: to boost Reels’ engagement and keep audiences consuming video content on Instagram.
Ready to take advantage of these new editing tools and insights? We’ve rounded up your complete guide to these seven new content creation tools and our predictions for what these updates mean for the future direction of Instagram in the new year (and beyond).
7 New Instagram Content Creation Tools You Need to Know About
In a recent blog announcement from Instagram HQ, the team revealed the seven key improvements and new content creation tools they’re rolling out across the platform. If you’re looking to stay up-to-date with content trends, boost reach and drive meaningful engagement, these tools and new features need to be on your radar,
1. New in-app Reel editing tools
In an effort to inspire in-app editing, the Instagram team have announced a stack of new ways to create Reels directly within the Instagram platform.
When producing a Reel within Instagram, the in-app editing suite now allows you to scale, crop and rotate clips with ease. Simply hit the ‘crop’ at the bottom of the screen to access these features, all designed to make it easier to control the flow and order of clips in your Reels.
Voiceover fans: Instagram has made it easier to find this feature (along with their most-loved editing tools) with new dedicated buttons at the bottom of the editing suite screen.
The addition of Undo and Redo buttons makes it easier to edit clips and reverse or replicate recent changes.
Plus, it’s now easier to find the exact clips you need from your Camera Roll, with handy clip previews and the ability to zoom or search through existing footage.
💡 How to harness these new tools: Get dynamic with your Reels content by splicing together multi-clip videos (rather than using one single clip). Why not show a product unboxing from multiple different angles to really give followers an accurate representation of this item?
2. Create memeable content with Instagram’s clip hub
Want to boost the chances of your Reels going viral or gaining significant organic visibility on Instagram? It’s time to add lighthearted, meme-style content to your social media strategy that is highly shareable.
Instagram is currently testing the ability for you to pull from their clip hub to add clips with audio to your Reels. This takes the manual editing out of producing meme-style Reels, allowing you to entertain fans at scale.
💡 How to harness this new tool: Spend time browsing Instagram’s clip hub to curate a selection of clips that could work for your brand, industry or niche. Then, try adding 1x meme-style Reel to your content calendar per week to test and learn which memes resonate with your audience.
3. New text-to-speech voices and font styles
Want to harness voiceovers in a creative, unexpected way? Instagram’s text-to-speech feature allows you to harness the power of voiceovers with a series of pre-set voice personalities.
In exciting news, there are now ten new voices available to use in English (available in select countries). Plus, six font styles will be available in hundreds of languages, allowing you to customize your supporting text overlays to better align with your brand’s visual identity.
💡 How to harness this new tool: Give your brand’s Reels content a recognizable look, feel and sound by adopting one voice and text style consistently across your content.
4. Easier ways to discover trending audio
Harnessing trending audio is one of the best tactics to organically boost the visibility of your content. To date, discovering trending audio has been a manual task (unless you’re reading our weekly trending sounds wrap-up on the Plann blog).
But now, Instagram is making it easier to discover new audio tracks and unlocking new ways to access their trending audio browser. Head to the top of your Camera Roll to navigate quickly to the audio page.
💡 How to harness this new tool: Be sure to keep tabs on what tracks and sounds are trending on Instagram and use trending sounds just as they’re gaining popularity to cut through and reach new audiences through Reels.
5. Improvements to Instagram’s drafts surface
If you’re batch-creating your content as a business owner or social media manager, Instagram’s new draft surface updates are going to make content creation a whole lot easier.
With a new streamlined view of all your saved drafts, it’s easier than ever to edit your in-progress Reels.
Plus, the Instagram team is currently rolling out even more controls, such as the ability to preview drafts, rename them and schedule natively in the Instagram app.
6. Create custom stickers
Instagram is currently testing the ability for brands and creators to create custom stickers using imagery and videos from your own Camera Roll.
This new tool harnesses Meta’s new Segment Anything model. An AI tool that can cut out any object in any image with a single click.
💡 How to harness this new tool: Once available, custom stickers will be perfect for adding a branded look and feel to your Instagram Stories, perfect for adding your logo or branded graphics to your Stories with ease.
7. New photo filters for feed posts
It’s not just Reels that are getting an editing suite makeover. For static photos, Instagram’s new filters are here to help you curate the perfect aesthetic, tone and mood for your feed.
Explore Instagram’s new photo filters and customize the look of your photos and carousel posts. Expect a mix of subtle colors and more eye-catching expressive styles, perfect for you to curate to match your brand’s visual identity.
The latest improvements to Reel insights
Across both Instagram and Facebook Reels, Meta is rolling out a range of changes to help you learn more about the performance of your video content.
Firstly, a new metric is being added called “Replays”. This comes as Meta updates the definition of Reels “Plays” to include “Replays” in addition to “Initial Plays”. As a result, you might notice an increase in your Reels plays.
New insights coming soon: Meta is also rolling out the ability for creators to see how many people are watching your Reels on a moment-to-moment basis with an interactive Retention Chart.
This is an exciting analytics update that will allow you to understand how ‘sticky’ your Reels are (a.k.a. Do your videos inspire viewers to watch until the very last second?).
What do these tools tell us about the future of Instagram?
These latest tools and tweaks to the Instagram platform reveal that Meta is doubling-down on in-app editing. By heavily investing in the in-app editing tools, it’s clear Instagram is trying to keep pace with its biggest direct competitor, TikTok (and their dedicated editing app, CapCut).
While we’re big fans of repurposing and cross-posting content, these changes indicate that Instagram is prioritizing content built and edited natively within the platform.
If you do choose to continue editing your content on third-party apps (like CapCut), be sure to remove all watermarks and try using trending audio natively within Instagram to boost your position in the algorithm.
As we head into 2024, we expect even more sophisticated editing tools to be rolled out, empowering creators and brands (like you) to make original video content a key pillar of your social media strategy.
Master your social media marketing with Plann
Looking for an all-in-one content creation suite that simplifies managing your social media channels? Inside Plann, you’ll discover everything you need to effortlessly map out your strategy, repurpose your content, and take your social content to new heights.
Go on, and redeem your 7-day free trial of Plann Plus. If you don’t like it, keep using Plann for free!
