Honestly, at this point, Meta is like that girl at school who used to be popular and now that she’s been overtaken, copies everything the current popular girls are doing. It reminds me of that scene in Euphoria where Sydney Sweeney turns up in a pathetic attempt to look just like Alexa Demie.
The gist of this analogy is this; Meta has announced some new updates for Facebook Reels. The length of Reels has now changed from a max of 60 seconds to 90 seconds. an additional 30 seconds on the previous limit. Meta’s also integrating Memories into the mix, with a new option to ‘Share as Reel’ from your Memories prompt. It honestly pops up anytime you look through old stories to the point of being annoying…
Having said that, apparently millions of Facebook users share their Memories in the app every day, and by adding Reels as a distribution option, it could be an easy way to get more people engaging with the format, and checking out Reels in the app. Maybe it’s a generational thing…
A cool and useful new feature which could save us hours in editing is that Meta’s also adding ‘Grooves’, which will automatically align your video with the beat of the music you choose.
finally, Meta’s expanding its Reels templates option to Facebook, which makes it easier to replicate trending video styles and formats.
Bringing me back to the Euphoria analogy, mist of these features mirror recent decisions and development taken by, you guessed it, TikTok! In regards to lengthening Reels, TikTok recently launched a 10 minute option aiming for users to spend even longer on the app. In regards to the Grooves feature, TikTok has several similar options on this front, providing an easy way to make synched video clips, which can be both more engaging and better looking.
While it may be a direct replica of TikTok, Reels has been huge for Meta, with Reels views across Facebook and Instagram more than doubling over the last year, and reshares of Reels also doubling, across both Facebook and Instagram, over the last six months.
Furthermore, Meta has been well-placed to fill the void left by TikTok in the case of a ban of the app in certain countries. That’s what’s happened in India, where both Instagram and YouTube have gained significant traction in the wake of the TikTok ban in that nation.
