Instagram Edits App Preview: A Broad Range of Creative Tools Announced for Instagram's New Video Editing App

With a federal ban on the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, and the video editing app CapCut in flux, Instagram’s parent company Meta has announced that it plans to launch a new video editing app called Edits.

This new Instagram Edits app is meant to become an alternative to CapCut, one of the best mobile video editing apps for the content found on TikTok and other short-form video platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

Let’s examine what we know about Edits and explore how Instagram could make it one of the better options for creating content for short-form social video platforms.

What is the Instagram Edits app?

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A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

Announced via an Instagram post by Instagram head Adam Mosseri on his account, the new app from Instagram called “Edits has been designed for those who are passionate about making videos on their phones.

In his post, Mosseri explains that the Instagram Edits app is meant to be more than just a video editing app. It’s meant to be a full suite of creative tools. It will include features like a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (no details on what this means yet), and all the editing tools you’d expect.

There are also some helpful features teased by Mosseri that will include the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and—if a creator decides to share your videos on Instagram—there will be some new, powerful insights to review performance.

How does the Instagram Edits app work?

While not officially launched just yet, Edits is available for preorder on the Apple App Store. And the app page gives some insights into how users will be able to make videos that they’re proud of with Instagram's new video editing and creation app.

Edits is also set to be free to use and will include many features to simplify your creative process, including:

Export your videos with no watermark and share to any platform.
Keep track of all your drafts and videos in one place.
Capture high-quality clips up to 10 minutes long and start editing right away.
Easily share to Instagram in 1080p.

Powerful tools to create and edit, including:

Edit videos with single-frame precision.
Get the look you want with camera settings for resolution, framerate, and dynamic range, plus upgraded flash and zoom controls.
Bring images to life with AI animation.
Change up your background with a green screen or add a video overlay.
Choose from a variety of fonts, sound and voice effects, video filters, stickers, and more.
Enhance audio to make voices clearer and remove background noise.
Generate captions automatically and customize how they appear in your video.

And some extra features to help Inform your creative decisions, including:

Track how your reels are performing with a live insights dashboard.
Get a breakdown of engagement for followers and non-followers.
Understand what affects if your reel gets recommended, like skip rate.
Plan your next videos based on what’s working for your audience.

How to get started with the Instagram Edits App

There is still much to know about Edits and what it will look like once revealed. However, using CapCut as a guide, we can perhaps glimpse what the teams at Meta and Instagram are planning for the video editing app.

However, Mosseri has also commented online that Edits will “have a much broader range of creative tools” than CapCut. There will also be some AI video editing tool elements as well. Here’s Mosseri's full quote from his comment on Threads.

“It's been months and I think it'll end up pretty different than CapCut. Edits will have a much broader range of creative tools and probably a smaller addressable audience. Think a place to track all your ideas instead of templates. Think AI video editing tools on a per clip or per video basis. Think new insights on why your videos are succeeding or struggling.”

We can also expect Edits to be supercharged with insights and analytics, which creators and marketing creatives might be interested in seeing integrated more closely into the editing process.

The best royalty free music for Instagram Edits

We also can’t confirm how Edits will work with music just yet. But we can assume that because Meta and Instagram create and operate Edits, it will follow the same rules and guidelines for copyright-protected music as platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

With these rules, it will most likely be in any creator’s best interest to use royalty free music that has been properly licensed for commercial use. If you’re interested in finding the best music for these purposes, here are some hand-picked recommendations for using on Instagram or with Instagram edits.

1. Boujee by Wowashwow

Description: A medium energy, electronic song that is best described as fun and happy. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 107
Key: E Minor
Listen and license here

2. L’amour Au Café by Rêves Français

Description: A low-energy jazz song that is best described as romantic and happy. Accordion and piano are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 135
Key: F Major
Listen and license here

3. Pop Princess by PALA

Description: A medium energy, pop song that is best described as fun and happy. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 104
Key: D Major
Listen and license here

4. Honey by JMPSCR

Description: A medium-energy, electronic song that is best described as angry. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 120
Key: F Minor
Listen and license here

5. Pull The Plug by Cody Martin

Description: A medium energy, electronic song that is best described as scary and suspenseful. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 110
Key: D Minor
Listen and license here

6. World Cafe by LNDÖ

Description: A low energy, acoustic song that is best described as romantic and quirky. Bass and guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 65
Key: A Major
Listen and license here

7. Little Haunt by Tiger Gang

Description: A medium energy, rock song that is best described as quirky and fun. Organ and drums are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 163
Key: C Minor
Listen and license here

8. Boardroom Blitz by Adrian Walther

Description: A medium-energy pop song that is best described as fun and happy. Organ and guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 160
Key: A Minor
Listen and license here

9. Maths by Neon Beach

Description: A medium energy, electronic song that is best described as fun and happy. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 120
Key: A Minor
Listen and license here

10. The Payback by Nu Alkemi$t

Description: A low-energy, funk song that is best described as reflective and quirky. Organ and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 90
Key: C Minor
Listen and license here

These are just some of our top selections. If you’d like to further explore all of our royalty free music tracks in our Soundstripe library, then we highly recommend checking out all of our royalty free music on our Soundstripe app.

When will Instagram Edits be available?

In his original post, Mosseri shares that Edits is available to preorder in the iOS App Store and is coming to Android soon (with online rumors suggesting sometime in February).

Mosseri also shares that, in the meantime, the team will work with a handful of video creators to obtain feedback and improve the experience.

We’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date on this exciting new video editing app as more details come out. So stay tuned to the Soundstripe blog for more updates.

If you’d like more short-form video tips or Instagram content creation resources, check out these additional articles below.