New Instagram feature allows any user to download public reels

Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, announced on Wednesday that the platform is now enabling users globally to download public Reels directly to their devices. This new feature expands upon the previous limitation where users could only save Reels within the Instagram app for later viewing.

Image: Alexander Shatov

Mosseri, in his Instagram broadcast, mentioned that these downloaded Reels will carry an Instagram watermark, including the account name, similar to the watermark seen on TikTok videos.

To download a Reel, users can simply click on the share button and choose the download option. However, account holders have the option to disable downloading for their Reels. This can be done by navigating to Settings > Privacy > Reels and Remix and toggling off the “Allow people to download your Reels” option.

An important point to note is that if a Reel uses a licensed audio track, the downloaded version will be muted. Only Reels with original audio will retain their sound in the downloaded format.

Image: Instagram

This feature was initially made available to users in the United States in June and has now been extended to Instagram users worldwide.

Back in 2021, Instagram began filtering out clips with watermarks from other platforms like TikTok from its recommendations. Similarly, in August 2022, YouTube started adding a logo watermark to downloaded videos from its Shorts feature, aiming to reduce the sharing of these videos across different platforms.

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