Adam Mosseri, the president of Instagram, announced on Wednesday that anyone worldwide may download public reels via the app. Before this release, reels could only be saved to the Instagram app to be viewed later.
According to Mosseri’s Instagram broadcast channel, downloaded reels will include an account name and Instagram watermark, similar to what is seen on TikTok.
Users may hit the share icon and choose the download option to save a reel. Users will be able to disable downloading for their reels. You may disable the download option by going to Settings > Privacy > Reels and Remix and selecting the “Allow people to download your reels” checkbox.
Notably, if you download a reel incorporating a licensed audio clip, the downloaded video will not have any audio. The downloaded clip will only contain audio from reels with original audio tracks.
The firm began enabling customers in the United States to download Reels in June, and it is now expanding the feature to people worldwide.
Instagram ceased suggesting videos with a TikTok (or any other) watermark in 2021. To discourage cross-platform sharing, YouTube started putting a logo-based watermark on downloaded Shorts, the company’s short video offering, in August 2022.