Instagram announces new content creation and editing features

This Wednesday, Instagram announced that it is testing new content creation features that will make it easier to edit content as well as provide additional creative tools to its users. Many of the features are specific to Reels, but also others for photo posts, along with new tools for getting insights into the individual posts’ performance.

Instagram is addressing the fact that some of its current limitations force users to edit videos on a different app and then upload them as Reels. Soon, users will be able to scale, crop, and rotate individual clips, and also undo/redo while editing. Another major addition will be the ability to add clips with audio from the new Media Clip hub to Reels.

Users will also be able to create custom stickers from photos and videos in their own library, as well as from other Reels and Stories on the platform, making it easier to find meme-worthy content. Editing drafts of Reels will also be simpler, with a new interface showing all in-progress drafts and allowing users to preview, rename and schedule them in advance.

Finding the right audio for Reels will become easier, with “new ways to access the audio browser, or trending audio” and to move quickly from the Camera Roll to jump to the audio page.

On the text side, there will be 10 new English text-to-speech voices, 6 new font styles, and outlined text for better clarity. For photo posts, there will be additional filters, and an improved interface for Camera Roll preview and selection.

Finally, insights into posts’ performance is going to be enhanced with the addition of a new ‘Replays’ metric. Number of ‘Plays’ will now include not only ‘Initial Plays’ but also ‘Replays’. A new interactive Retention Chart will also show creators how many people watched a Reel for what duration of its entire length, and the average watch time, giving finer insights into engagement or drop-offs.

Instagram has not specified exactly when these features will be rolled out, or if they will all be introduced at once, beyond mentioning (for at least some of them) that they will be released “over the coming months”.

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