Instagram announced today it will allow users to remix any video content on the app, not just short-form reels videos. The company officially launched Remix, its version of TikTok Duets, last March. The feature lets users record their reels video alongside a video from another user, as a means of interacting, reacting, collaborating, or highlighting other content on the Instagram Reels platform. Now Instagram says any public video on the app is fair game for a remix. But this only applies to videos published publicly from this point forward — the feature won’t work on older content.
The company said the expansion made sense as it’s watched as Remix has been embraced by Reels users. It wanted to offer more ways for creators to “reinvent their content” and collaborate with others. When remixing a non-Reels video, creators will still have access to Reels’ set of creative tools, including Collabs, Voiceover, Effects and Audio Tools.
To use the new feature, users can tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner of any public Instagram video published after this update goes live. From there, you’ll choose “Remix this video” and record your answer or upload a video from your phone’s camera roll. Creators are able to remix either all or part of the other person’s video, and download it as part of the remix. The resulting remixed video will then be visible anywhere you share your reels.
Though the feature’s expansion could certainly inspire more remixing, resulting in more content for Instagram Reels, it’s not clear that all Instagram creators will be open to the idea of having their video content repurposed in this way. Those who don’t want to participate will need to opt out of having their videos remixed from their account settings, Instagram says. This is available under the “Reels and Remix Controls” setting, which now allows you to toggle on or off remixes for both reels and feed videos. All users are being defaulted to “on” for the new feature, however.
Alternately, creators who want to allow some videos to be remixed and others not, will be able to disable remixes on a per-video basis if they chose to leave the setting on.
Image Credits: Instagram
With the launch of remixes for public videos, Instagram seems to assume that everyone with a public account intends to be a “creator” and is open to the idea of having their content repurposed by other users. That’s not necessarily the case. A number of Instagram users may have simply allowed their accounts to default to public during their initial sign-up, without realizing that doing so would later expose their content to a potentially much wider audience.
Unfortunately, Instagram isn’t the first to automatically opt-in users to having their content repurposed in order to better compete with TikTok. When YouTube launched its own TikTok rival, YouTube Shorts, it did so by allowing creators to sample audio from other people’s videos for use in their own. Instagram has just taken things a step further.
Image Credits: Instagram
Unrelated to the remix changes, Instagram also announced it would now allow users to highlight the topic, date and time of a scheduled Live on their profiles. This will give users an easier way to view and sign up for Lives and creators won’t necessarily have to create a feed post to promote the event.
The new features are rolling out to all Instagram users now.