Meta has added a new “sharing to Reels” feature that lets Facebook users post Reels from third-party apps. This announcement comes just weeks after the company made its TikTok-cloned feature available to “more than 150 countries across the globe”. With this latest move, Facebook wants more original content from its users.
With this update, third-party app developers will be able to add a “Reels button” to their apps, allowing their users to post videos straight to Reels and use the editing features of that app. Smule, a popular karaoke software, and video editing apps Vita and VivaVideo are among the first developers to use the feature. The company says when a person shares their reel from a third-party app to Facebook people can easily follow along, like, comment and share with friends and family.
In a similar vein to Stories, Mark Zuckerberg has sought to copy Reels. Just like the company once did with Stories when Snapchat was considered its main rival, Meta has pushed Reels into practically every aspect of its service recently. As TikTok has overtaken Facebook in terms of users, the company has placed a lot of faith in Reels. He stated last October that Reels will be “as crucial for our goods as Stories” and that the company’s “North Star” was reorienting its service to appeal to younger people.
It has been a struggle for the company to encourage users to post original content, rather than just rip-offs of TikTok videos. In the year since Instagram announced it would stop promoting videos with other apps’ watermarks, the service has continued to be filled with recycled TikToks. Incorporating a “Reels” button into other video production apps is not likely to fix this problem quickly, but it could help attract more content that isn’t made by TikTok users.
Meta says anyone can create a reel on Facebook and become a creator on the global stage or just share them with friends and family. Reels can include audio, AR effects, and captions with hashtags or tags for other accounts. When a person shares their reel from a third-party app to Facebook people can easily follow along, like, comment and share with friends and family.
