It isn’t a copy of TikTok!!
A new feature on Instagram Reels? Credit: Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
A new feature just might be headed for your Instagram feeds.
If you know anything about new features on Instagram, you might guess that by “new,” we mean “it already exists on another platform, but now it will also exist on Instagram.” But this is actually a new feature. If you can believe it, it doesn’t exist in its current functionality on TikTok — or anywhere else — already.
What is Instagram Spins?
First spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi and later confirmed by TechCrunch, “Spins” will allow users to swap out the text or audio in Instagram Reels.
Instagram told TechCrunch that Spins is currently just an internal prototype — no one in the public is testing it out just yet. Instagram did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mashable.
How does Instagram Spins work?
If a creator posts a trending template on Reels, other creators can take that template and swap out the text or audio. For example, if one creator posts a video of someone making a glass of green juice with the text “self care,” another person could toggle on Spins and reshare that video with the text swapped out to say “happy St. Patty’s day.” The original creator would still get credit for their original Reel.
If this gets released, it just might be one of the first Reels features that users didn’t already have access to on TikTok — but we have no idea when, or if, the feature will ever see the light of day. What a world.
Christianna Silva is a Senior Culture Reporter at Mashable. They write about tech and digital culture, with a focus on Facebook and Instagram. Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow them on Twitter @christianna_j.
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