Meta has announced that it is expanding the capabilities of Facebook Reels by adding support for longer videos of up to 90 seconds, along with new creative tools. Previously, Reels were limited to 60 seconds. The company introduced support for longer Instagram Reels several months ago. This expansion is in response to TikTok’s move into longer-form video content with videos up to 10 minutes long.
To improve the user experience, Meta is introducing new creative tools to Facebook Reels, such as the “templates” feature. This feature lets users create Reels with trending templates, which is similar to TikTok’s templating option. Additionally, Facebook Reels is getting a new “Grooves” feature that automatically aligns and syncs the motion in your video to the beat of your favourite song through visual beat technology, a feature similar to what TikTok offers.
It’s worth noting that all of these new Reels features were first introduced on Instagram more than seven months ago before making their way to Facebook. It’s possible that Meta wanted to test their effectiveness on Instagram before introducing them to Facebook Reels.
Facebook launched Reels last year in a move that was seen as a key part of Meta’s response to the TikTok threat. Although Meta initially saw Reels as a way to directly combat TikTok with a feature inside the Instagram app, the company soon realized it could mount a more powerful counteroffensive if it also brought Facebook into the mix and allowed for cross-posting between the two social networks.
Meta says Reels is its fastest growing format and that it continues to grow quickly. Reels plays across Facebook and Instagram have more than doubled over the last year, the company said in an email. It also noted that reshares of Reels have more than doubled on Facebook and Instagram in the last six months. Meta plans to continue to roll out new features for Reels to make it easier for creators to get discovered.
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