Instagram is allegedly planning to launch Reels – its TikTok-style short form video feature – as a standalone app, reports The Information.
It would be separate from the main Instagram app, and would directly compete with TikTok.
Its existence is supposedly part of an initiative code named Project Ray within Meta, which aims to strengthen Instagram’s ability to compete with TikTok.
This would be Meta’s second attempt at launching a TikTok-style app, after it launched and then shut down Lasso in 2018.
TikTok faces an uncertain future in the US, and was given a reprieve from a nationwide ban until 27 March after it agreed to sell its US business to Oracle.