As governments around the world express growing concerns about TikTok, its rival Instagram Reels is getting a series of updates aimed at creators. Meta announced today that it’s adding a dedicated destination for trending audio and hashtags on Reels, expanding gifts on Reels to more countries, enhancing Reels editing tools, adding new metrics and more.
With this latest update, creators will be able to see the top trending songs on Reels. They will be able to see how many times the audio has been used and then tap it to use it themselves or save the audio for later. Creators will also be able to see what the top trending topics and hashtags are on Reels. To access the new dedicated destination for trending content, creators have to navigate to their Professional Dashboard and select the “Check today’s Reels Trends” option. From there, they will be taken to a “Reels Trends” page where they can find trending audio and hashtags.
The company says the new dedicated section aims to help creators learn more about what’s currently popular in order to better inform their own content and ensure they’re staying on top of trends.
Instagram is also expanding access to its Gifts monetization feature to creators in more countries in the coming weeks. The feature will be rolling out in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Gifts, which first began testing last year, allows fans to provide a favorite creator with direct monetary support in the form of themed virtual gifts. The gifts are purchased in the Instagram app using the virtual currency Stars and can cost anywhere from just 10 stars to several hundred stars.
In addition, the social network is adding a new feature that will show creators which fans sent them gifts. When creators tap on a new heart icon next to their supporters, the user will receive a notification that the creator saw and recognized their gift.
Source: techcrunch.com
