After testing it out over the past few months, Instagram’s now rolling out the option to download publicly posted Reels to your camera roll, which will provide another way to share Reels content.
As per Instagram chief Adam Mosseri (on his Instagram channel):
“In the US, we’re rolling out the ability to download reels shared by public accounts to your camera roll. Just tap the ‘Share’ icon on a reel you love and selected ‘Download’.”
That’ll enable broader sharing of TikTok content, which, even without a direct link back to the creators’ profile, can still help to boost their branding, with the inclusion of their username on the clip.
Though there are some limitations. Some users have reported audio issues with some Reels content, which could be linked to Meta’s music licensing agreements. We’ve asked Instagram for further clarification on this element.
Creators can also opt out of enabling downloads of their content in their Account Settings, so not all videos will be downloadable, while you can’t save privately posted content.
And it’s only available to selected users in the US, at least for the time being. But outside of that, it’ll add another pathway for creators to maximize the reach of their content across platforms, following the lead of TikTok, which has enabled video downloads since forever, basically.
As such, the only real surprise is that it’s taken IG this long to enable the function – but it was likely looking to better protect creators by enabling linkage back to their original posts in the app. Or it was hesitant to allow users to download and re-use IG posts elsewhere – but either way, it’s here now, so stop asking so many questions.