Famous leaker Alessandro Paluzzi recently tweeted that Instagram is testing video reactions to reels in an attempt to compete with its rival, TikTok. Reels are short and entertaining videos that allow users to express their creativity, promote their brand, and so on. Instagram introduced reels in 2020, and the feature turned out to be a massive hit. Users used it to participate in trends, interact with their community, spread knowledge, and explore new ideas.
The feature was mainly inspired by TikTok, which also features short, entertaining videos. These videos are both fun and educational. TikTok also hosts a reaction feature known as the 'duet' feature, which allows users to create videos that respond to the videos other TikTok users have made. The reaction videos appear on people's newsfeeds with the original video embedded in them. The feature allows users to interact with one another and promotes community engagement. It enables users to continue specific trends and turn them into viral sensations. This way, users get noticed when they piggyback on the TikTok videos of users with comparatively bigger followings by reacting to their content. The collaborative element that this feature gives to the app is one of the biggest draws of the app.
Paluzzi predicts Instagram will soon release video reactions inspired by TikTok. Almost every social media platform acquires some feature from another rival app in an attempt to become users' favorite platform. Instagram introduced Stories in 2016, which was inspired by Snapchat. In 2018, it introduced an updated Explore feed that Instagram also stole from Snapchat. In the same year, The platform introduced AR filters inspired by the same app. Fortunately, for Instagram, all three of these features turned out to be immensely successful.
Will Instagram Reels Reactions Be Successful?
Not every feature that an app steals from another platform turns out to be successful. For example, Twitter introduced Fleets in 2020. The feature allowed Twitter users to post full-screen photos, videos, or plain text reactions to tweets that disappeared after 24 hours. Fleets came years after Snapchat and Facebook introduced similar options for their users. However, the feature didn't make a good fit for Twitter and was discontinued just one year later. The decision to discontinue Fleets was because it didn't attract new users as expected.
Whether video reactions work for Instagram or not is something only time can tell. Just like IGTV was introduced by Instagram in 2018 and discontinued just three years later, this feature might see a similar fate. Users will just have to wait and see if the video reactions on Instagram will be successful.
Source: Alessandro Paluzzi/Twitter