MOSCOW, June 22. / TASS /. Russian users of Instagram, owned by Facebook, will be able to create and watch short entertainment videos in a dedicated Reels tab, as well as add music to Stories and Facebook profiles from June 23, the company told reporters.
“Starting June 23, Russian users on Instagram and Facebook will have access to long-awaited music features – Reels and music. Instagram and Facebook are also launching a new music sticker in Stories,” said Instagram. In addition, Facebook users will have the opportunity to add their favorite track to section “Hobbies and interests” and fix it in the profile header. “It will be played every time someone decides to visit the profile of this user,” – noted in the social network.
As noted in the company, Reels is a format mainly for creating entertaining, viral videos, including challenge videos, scenes. Using the tab, you can create and edit videos up to 20 seconds long, apply AR effects to them, including the “green screen” effect, to transform the background. Reels can be published in Stories or post format. Users will be able to choose whether they want to share them only with their followers or with the wider audience of the Instagram community in the Reels section. This tab can be found by clicking on the button in the center of the navigation bar.
In Reels, you can add music from the app's library or choose from recommendations. Users will be able to create their own original audio, and if their account is open, then other users will be able to use this audio in their Reels. To add music to Stories, you will need to open the camera in the application, select a photo or video from the gallery, then click on the sticker icon and select the “Music” sticker. With the introduction of the Music sticker, Instagram and Facebook users will be able to reply to Stories with questions using songs.
The social network noted that in order to add music options, a long work was done “with a large number of copyright holders abroad and in Russia” to create a library of music on social networks that is relevant for Russia. “So far, we are just at the beginning of the development of musical functions and Reels in Russia and will continue to work with all types of partners, whether they are labels, distributors or performers, to determine the formats of cooperation,” noted on Facebook. According to Instagram, about 45% of all videos that users post to the feed are less than 15 seconds.
The American corporation Facebook announced its intention to launch Instagram Reels on August 5. The service was supposed to compete with the Chinese TikTok network. In the US, the Reels tab appeared in November 2020.
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