Instagram head Adam Mosseri took to Threads on Sunday to announce a new video editing tool, Edits, which is scheduled for release on 13 March.
The news about the forthcoming suite of editing tools followed a series of sweeping policy changes by parent company Meta, to remake its platforms ahead of US president Donald Trump’s second term.
While the updates may seem minor against this broader recalibration, Edits — combined with other recent UX changes — could signal a renewed strategic focus on Meta’s roots: connecting people.
Edits has been widely interpreted as Meta taking advantage of the TikTok ban in the US by launching a product to rival CapCut, a video-editing tool owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. While TikTok has been given a reprieve by Trump and is once again available to US users, CapCut — valued at $100 million in 2023 — remains absent from Apple’s App and Google’s Play Stores with no clear path to return.
Mosseri addressed these comparisons directly, calling Edits, ‘CapCut, but more for creators than casual video makers,’ and promising not just video editing tools, but also an inspiration tab, idea tracking, and built-in insights.
‘Edits could make life easier for small teams,’ says Annie-Mai Hodge, founder of Girl Power Marketing. ‘It’s a free tool that not only facilitates content creation, but allows users to share drafts with other people, making the approval process more streamlined.’
Beyond Edits, Meta also began testing vertical profile grids on Instagram this week, a design tweak that has thrown curated influencer layouts into chaos. Highlights, previously housed under bio sections, have also moved to a dedicated tab, and users can now create three-minute Reels, reflecting a deeper focus on video.
Notably, a new section in the Reels tab shows content that users’ friends have engaged with — a callback to Instagram’s activity feed, which was scrapped in 2019. The Following tab was replaced by Instagram’s Explore page, as the platform leaned into the growing trend of algorithmic-dictated discovery pioneered by TikTok.
Do Meta’s recent changes suggest a possible reversal of this strategy, to reignite its role as a hub for social interaction?
Jess Hope, social creative strategist and founder of Create Racket, says that the shift could bring significant opportunities for brands and creators:
‘Meta puts the emphasis on follower activity to inform personalisation. Where TikTok serves you content based on your own activity, Meta will push content that’s been watched and liked by friends and folks you follow. Through a talent lens, this could bring fans closer and increase the connection between audience and creator.’
Mosseri framed this evolution as a deliberate move toward more meaningful engagement. ‘We want Instagram not to be just a place where creatives share their creativity, but one where people connect over that creativity — with friends, with shared interests,’ he said in a video posted on Friday about the Reels updates.
In a 2019 essay for Slate, Ashley Feinberg called the Following tab’s eradication, ‘a loss […] for democracy itself.’ She highlighted how the feature offered ‘rare insight into the inner lives of some of our most guarded public figures.’
‘In this age of information warfare, any loss of transparency — especially where our politicians and public figures are concerned — is something to mourn.’
Six years on, Feinberg’s argument remains salient. But while some value transparency, other users recall the friction that came with Instagram’s original activity feed and everyone knowing each other’s content habits.
Of course, it may be that Meta is banking on this dynamic — where scrutiny of friends’ activity and combative interactions drive engagement — to keep users spending more time on the platform.
Hope has a more positive forecast. Among creators, she says, ‘we could see a shift towards more curated activity on Instagram, encouraging positive co-creation and community building.’
Expert view:
Molly Elvin, head of new business at Socially Powerful, on Meta’s Edits tool
The timing of Instagram’s Edits launch is significant with TikTok’s uncertain future in the US. With Meta positioning this new feature as a direct alternative to CapCut, we anticipate it could reshape creator workflows across platforms. The ability to edit videos directly on phones, save ideas for future content, share drafts with other creators, and gain insights on how these videos perform on Instagram could be transformative for our creators who currently juggle multiple editing tools.
What’s especially interesting is how this fits into Meta’s broader platform strategy. While Instagram has confirmed that creators can use Edits to create content for any platform, not just Instagram, we anticipate this could naturally increase platform loyalty. The introduction of platform-specific features, combined with Instagram’s recent layout changes to a more vertical, TikTok-like format, suggests a comprehensive strategy to enhance creator tools.
For brands preparing to leverage these new tools, we recommend a strategic approach. Given that Instagram Reels is already attracting significant interest, we anticipate Edits could further strengthen this trend. Brands should develop guidelines that embrace these new editing capabilities while maintaining authentic connections with their audiences.
Instagram’s decision to display Reel likes publicly signals a strategic shift toward transparency and community engagement. This change, alongside Edits, points to Meta’s focus on fostering genuine creator-audience connections. As creators begin experimenting with these features, we expect to see new patterns emerge in how content is promoted and engaged across the platform. This could particularly impact campaign content, as creators might leverage Instagram Stories and other cross-promotional tools more strategically to drive engagement.
While it’s too early to see the full impact of these changes, as the app is yet to be released, we always advise our clients and creators to be early adopters in testing these new features. The ability to perfect content within the app, combined with Meta’s robust analytics, could provide significant advantages for those who master these tools early.
Feature image: Collabstr on Unsplash
