Meta is testing a highly anticipated feature on Instagram Reels that permits users to pause a video just by tapping on it.
For now, the flexibility to pause videos is just available to a small group of users all over the world, Meta said, in accordance with CNBC.
Unlike TikTok, Instagrammers previously were only in a position to pause a video by holding down the screen, requiring more effort and never allowing users to maneuver their fingers from their screens with a purpose to keep it paused.
Moreover, prior to the brand new feature, one tap on an Instagram Reel would simply turn off the video’s audio, however the clip itself would keep playing.
The feature is something that users have been requesting, often taking to other social media platforms to ask Meta for an answer.
“hello @instagram, can I please request a pause button on reels?? sincerely, a grieving former TikTok scroller,” one person posted on X in the course of the recent temporary TikTok shutdown.
“We’re going to learn what’s going to occur with TikTok, and no matter that, I expect Reels on Instagram and Facebook to proceed growing,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a call with analysts Wednesday.
Instagram’s latest feature is just one in all some ways the tech giant is attempting to capitalize on the potential shutdown of TikTok and to get so-called “TikTok refugees” to migrate to the Meta-owned app.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, briefly went dark earlier this month before restoring service to users lower than 24 hours later.
Nonetheless, TikTok’s future continues to be uncertain, and it could possibly be permanently banned on April 5; it’s already unavailable on each the Apple and Google app stores.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently announced a latest app called Edits, a video-editing utility that would replace the ByteDance-owned video-editing app CapCut — which was also banned alongside TikTok.
Moreover, Instagram’s profile grids now display all posts as rectangles with a 4:5 ratio relatively than squares.
Mosseri added that they’re looking into moving story highlights into the grid, making a separate tab for them — similar to the person tabs for Reels and tagged photos — relatively than keeping them as circles at the highest of your profile.
A latest feature within the Reels tab will can help you see which friends have liked or commented on a video — just like the chaotic, old Instagram “activity” tab that was removed in 2019.
The Meta-owned company is now offering creators large money bonuses to exclusively post Reels on Instagram. The offers reportedly range from $10,000 to $50,000 per 30 days.
