What Are Instagram Trial Reels? And How This New Instagram Feature Can Transform Your Reels Strategy

While Instagram might have started as a simple photo-sharing app, it’s obvious that the platform has become much more than that today. It is a digital home for all types of content creators to share videos, live streams, and—yes—even still photos.

Yet, even as far as it has come, Instagram is still innovating and launching new features. One of the newest features is “Trial Reels,” a new way for creators to share content with people who don’t follow them.

Let’s take a look at this experimental new Instagram feature and explore how it might be just the thing content creators have been looking for to grow their brands.

What are Instagram trial reels?

The Meta-owned social media platform announced this new trial reel feature, which aims to allow creators to experiment with new ideas and get early feedback on whether their content resonates by allowing them to share reels with accounts that don’t follow them.

The goal is really to help creators expand their reach and grow their follower counts by allowing users to upload reels that don’t fit into their usual niches. When using trial reels on Instagram, your followers won’t see it in the normal Instagram Feed, nor will the content be visible on the user’s reels tab or main grid. (Instagram will give users the ability to select “share with everyone” as an option, though.)

According to the support page, Instagram shares that some followers still might see the reel in other places, but the goal is to hide the content from your normal audience and let you test how it does with potential new followers.

How to post a trial reel on Instagram

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A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

Getting started with Instagram trial reels isn’t much different from getting started with regular Instagram reels. The process is pretty much the same, except for some key differences in sharing your reels.

To share your trial reel on Instagram:

Create a reel. Follow the steps until it’s time to share.
Before sharing the reel, tap the toggle to turn on Trial.
Tap Share.

It’s important to note that only you will be able to see that your reel is a trial. After you share your trial reel, your followers won’t see it in Feed or Instagram’s Reels tab. Your trial reel will not appear in your profile’s reels tab or your main grid unless you share it with everyone later.

Your trial reel will provide insights within 24 hours of sharing, allowing you to understand its performance.

Note: Some followers may still see your reel in other places. For example, someone might share your reel with them in a direct message or on a page that shows reels with the same audio, location, or filter.

How to share Trial Reels with everyone on Instagram

After you share a trial reel, you can see how it performs in the reels viewer, along with basic engagement metrics such as Views, Likes, Comments, and Shares. If your reel performs well, you may consider sharing it with everyone to increase its reach and connect with your followers.

To share your trial reel with everyone:

Tap on the View trial insights button in the reels viewer.
Tap Share to Everyone

Your reel will now be on the main grid of the reels tab of your profile and may be seen by followers in their Feed and Instagram’s Reels tab. The sooner you share your reel with everyone, the more likely your followers will see it in their Feed.

Note: Trial Reels can take longer to gain views because we're finding non-followers who will enjoy the content. They are treated separately from your other reels in our ranking systems, so they shouldn't impact the performance of your regular reels content.

How to share Trial Reels automatically with everyone on Instagram

You can also choose to have Instagram automatically share your trial reel with followers. If you turn on this setting, Instagram will automatically share your reel if it receives many views within the first 72 hours, indicating that it is performing well.

To share your trial reels with everyone automatically:

Create a reel.
On the publish screen, tap How it works under the Trials toggle.
Tap to toggle on Share to everyone automatically.
Tap Got it to save changes.

Note: This setting will be applied to all trial reels you share in the future unless you change it.

Best royalty music for Instagram trial reels

If you want to use music in your trial reels, it’s important to note that the same copyright rules and guidelines that cover regular Instagram reels will be enforced. This means if you’re using any music you haven’t properly secured, the listen to your content will be liable to be muted, removed, or your account banned.

To protect your videos properly, you should use royalty-free music from music licensing companies like Soundstripe. To help you on the right path, check out some of our top recommended tracks for Instagram trial reels below.

“Astro Jetson” by Mikey Geiger

Genre: Electro Pop
Instruments: Drums and synth
Listen and license here

“Back To You” by Daniel King

Genre: Electro Pop
Instruments: Drums and electronic drums
Listen and license here

“Thank You” by Demure

Genre: Chill LoFi
Instruments: Samples and electronic drums
Listen and license here

“Presence” by Mikey Geiger

Genre: Electro Pop
Instruments: Electric guitar and synth
Listen and license here

“Overtime” by Simple Thieves

Genre: Electro Pop
Instruments: Synth and electric guitar
Listen and license here

“Distant Shore” by Tide Electric

Genre: Hopeful Synth
Instruments: Piano and synth
Listen and license here

“I Just Wanna Luv U” by BRASKO

Genre: Indie Pop
Instruments: Synth and piano
Listen and license here

“Simple Song” by Fantoms

Genre: Chill Electro Beats
Instruments: Electric guitar and guitar
Listen and license here

“Heroes” by Noah Smith

Genre: Indie Pop
Instruments: Piano and electric guitar
Listen and license here

“Beauty Surrounding” by Pete Steward

Genre: Chill Acoustic
Instruments: Acoustic guitar and electric guitar
Listen and license here

Our full Soundstripe music library offers more royalty-free music for your Instagram reels or any other type of content in our Soundstripe music library here.

How to get started with Instagram trial reels

Instagram's new trial reels feature is set to only be available to professional accounts. Although Instagram does not say that only a select few regular accounts will be given access to it, it might be worth checking to see if you’re one of the lucky few.

For more tips, tricks, and royalty free music resources for working with Instagram and Instagram Reels, check out these helpful articles from the Soundstripe blog: