Instagram Reels Adds New Creator-Focused Updates

New Instagram Reels updates are here and they are trying hard to win over the creators on the platform.

Posted last year

Written by

Mackenzie Taylor

Posted last year

Well, well, well, look who is updating its video platform now that the threat of TikTok could be banned is increasing more and more. Last week, Instagram released new features to Reels to make it easier than ever to create video content for your account—and honestly? These features are ones that have us quite excited. From editing to finding trending audios all in one place, here are all the latest Reels updates you need to know.

One of the best new updates is that now creators will, be able to see top trending songs each week for Reels. Yes, the feature is quite similar to TikTok’s Creator Studio (I wonder where Meta got the idea from…) To access the trending audios, all you have to do is:

Click on your Professional Dashboard (yes, you must have a Creator account)
Select “Today’s Reels Trends”

From there, you’ll be able to see all the trending audio for the week on Reels, along with how many people have used the audio. If you like the audio, all you have to do is click on it and save it for later! You’ll also be able to discover which hashtags are trending on Reels as well, so you can catalog your content correctly and hopefully go viral in the process!

Flick’s tip: Be sure to check out our blog post updated weekly with trending audio for Instagram Reels.

Hashtags & Analytics

Find, manage, and analyze hashtags for Instagram.

Another feature it is expanding is the Gifts monetization feature to more and more creators in different countries. Gifts will now be available to those in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United States.

What the heck are gifts? With Gifts, fans can send a favorite creator a themed virtual gift that has direct monetary value. Once the fan sends the creator a Gift, the fan will get a special feature to let the creator know which fan has sent them gifts.

One of our favorite new features is the new editing options for Reels. Instagram now has made it even easier to edit Reels in the app under one editing screen. You can now edit your video, audio, add stickers and text in one place instead of going back and forth on multiple screens (thank goodness!).

Flick’s tip: Want to learn how to make the best Instagram Reels you can? Click here to see our breakdown on how to create viral Reels content.

And lastly, but certainly not least because this is huge, you’ll now get better insight into how your Reels are performing with new Reels metrics. Instagram is adding a new “total watch time (including time spent rewatching the Reel!), “average watch time,” and how much your Reels are helping the growth of your Instagram account. 🎉

Flick’s tip: Want to dive deeper into your Instagram analytics? Start a free 7-day trial with Flick to get all the latest and greatest insights into your account.

Instagram Analytics

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While the features are still being rolled out to all creator accounts, we definitely think this is a huge step in the right direction when it comes to Instagram.