Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced on Wednesday that anybody in the world can now download public Reels to their devices via the app. Before this release, Reels could only be saved to the Instagram app to be viewed at a later time.
According to Mosseri’s Instagram broadcast channel, Reels that are downloaded will include an account name and Instagram watermark, similar to what is seen on TikTok.
To save a reel, users can hit the share icon and choose the download option. Users will be able to disable downloading for their reels. By going to Settings > Privacy > Reels and Remix and selecting the “Allow people to download your Reels” toggle, you can disable the download option.
Notably, the downloaded video will not have any audio if you are downloading a Reel that incorporates a licensed audio clip. The downloaded clip will only contain audio from Reels that have their 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 stopped suggesting videos with the TikTok watermark (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 product, in August 2022.
