Instagram Reels adds multiple new features

Meta revealed that it would be expanding Reels’ gifting options to more nations, improving the editing features, introducing new metrics, and adding a dedicated location for popular audio and hashtags.

The new features aim to improve user experience, increase creator-audience engagement, and offer insightful data for data-driven content production. Reels now have four new features from Instagram, including:

• Central destination to find trending audio and hashtags
• Redesigned editing experience bringing together video clips, audio, stickers, and text
• New insights on total watch time and average watch time to help you better understand how your reels are performing, plus new recognitions for hitting key milestones
• Updates to gifts, including an easier way to recognize fans and bringing gifts to more creators internationally

Easy editing of reels:
By combining video clips, audio, stickers, and text into a single editing interface, Instagram is expediting the process of creating reels on the social media platform. With this improvement, both Android and IOS users may anticipate new fascinating features as they continue to invest in developing strategies to streamline and smooth the editing process.

Find out what is popular:
The introduction of a separate space to offer inspiration from the newest trends is helping creators who are constantly looking for new content ideas. Users will now be able to see which songs are the most played on Reels, see how many times the audio has been played, and choose to utilize or store the audio for themselves. Users will also be able to browse the top hashtags and themes on Reels, which might help them create content.

New insights:
In order to give users a better sense of content performance, the company has made some improvements to its Reels insights. The total watch time and average watch time are two new metrics that have been added, which make it easier to access insights right on users’ reels.

The cumulative amount of time a reel was played, including any replays, is recorded as total watch time. By dividing the watch time by the total number of plays, the average watch time determines the mean amount of time spent spinning a reel. A 17-second average watch time, for example, indicates that viewers viewed, on average, 17 seconds of the Reel. Users will be able to use this information to see where their audience is interested or where a stronger hook may be necessary to keep visitors interested for a longer amount of time. They are also introducing a fresh way to monitor the impact reels have on user expansion. Now, users will be notified when they earn new followers from their reels.

Expansion of gifts:
Instagram has now allowed Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK to offer gifts on the platform starting next week. They’re also creating a tool that shows which fans have sent gifts, allowing authors to thank their fans. Creators can send notifications to their followers letting them know that their gift has been viewed and appreciated by tapping the heart icon next to their supporters.