Instagram is constantly offering its users new features. A few years ago, these were masks and stories "borrowed" from Snapchat and Live Streaming introduced by Periscope. Reels for Stories is one of the latest updates which has the same principle of short videos introduced by TikTok. What will TikTok do in order to keep its position in the market and how the situation will develop further? Today's article is about the confrontation between popular social networks.

What is Reels for Stories by Instagram?

Reels is a new short video creation and editing feature on Instagram that allows you to shoot short 15-second clips, overlay music from your Facebook collection, add visuals, and then post or share these videos with your friends. Reels also allows you to take music from other users' videos and create remixes.

In fact, Reels can be called an analog of TikTok, embedded inside Instagram (like Stories and IGTV). To work with the service, you do not need to download and install a new application. Instagram plans to introduce instructions on how to work with the new service and give recommendations on how to edit videos to attract more subscribers.

Reels launch in Brazil and Europe

Journalists from IT publications such as Techcrunch and The Verge note that Reels' functionality largely replicates the capabilities of TikTok, which was originally created to publish short music videos. Today, the audience of TikTok accounts for 800 million users, and the application is among the most downloaded applications, which probably made the developers of Reels to act. They argue that despite the similarities, the functionality cannot be claimed to be identical to TikTok.

The new service was first tested on audiences from Brazil, but some time later Reels was launched in Europe, particularly in Germany and France.

After entering the European market, Instagram expanded some of Reels' features, adding the possibility to share videos directly with friends and followers, and placed a service transition button in a convenient place in the profile and in search.

TikTok response

Most likely, TikTok has removed the Instagram button from its interface in response to the introduction of Reels. In addition, some users have noticed that they have lost the opportunity to "share on Instagram".


Many blogger-millionaires have come to TikTok to reach a new audience and gradually move it to Instagram for a clear and familiar monetization. What will bloggers choose? Will they develop both sites simultaneously without being able to transfer subscribers or will they stay in the usual Instagram?


In any case, we believe that these are not the last actions of TikTok to strengthen its position on the market.

Other competitors of TikTok

Previously, Facebook, which owns Instagram, had already tried to launch an analogue of TikTok in the format of a stand-alone Lasso application, but the project had no success with a wide audience. However, Facebook is not giving up the idea, and probably plans to restart Lasso, redirecting the audience there from Reels.


The YouTube team has also introduced Shorts, 15-second videos, through its mobile app. Unlike stories, they appear on the channel alongside regular clips. You are able to use songs from YouTube Music to record those videos. The company believes that the launch of Shorts is an effective way to attract young audiences and a strong competitive edge in the fight for an audience with TikTok. Well, good luck, YouTube, the rest of the social networks are "bustling" a little faster.


Thus, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have already demonstrated their versions of TikTok and several other local Asian services like Kwai.

What's the bottom line?

Let's go back to the introduction of a new feature on Instagram - for many users, it reminded the situation with Periscope a few years ago. The audience of Periscope grew rapidly, everyone watched Live Streams, however, after the launch of Live Streams on Instagram, the service was forgotten in a couple of months. Let's see what scenario the confrontation with TikTok is going to follow and who will be the winner.