Following India’s decision to ban TikTok and hundreds of other Chinese privacy applications, Instagram has expanded its regional TikTok counterpart, known as Reels.
The test in India also comes just days after Facebook revealed it would shut down its standalone TikTok clone, Lasso, on July 10.
In addition to India, Instagram Reels is living in Brazil, and France and Germany as of recently. Yet a spokesperson for Instagram says the expansion can go much wider, without providing clear information.
Unlike Lasso, which had been its own separate program, Reels was planned to be a part of Instagram itself. Reels allows users to create and post short, 15-second music-or other audio-set videos, similar to TikTok. Like TikTok, the feature also offers a set of editing tools— such as a countdown timer and those that adjust the video speed, for example — that aim to make recording creative content easier. However, Instagram does not have the same kind of two-tabbed, scrollable feed, as provided by TikTok, only to watch the content of this new update.
