Despite the difficulties that TikTok has been constantly facing lately, it still continues to gain popularity around the world. It has already surpassed all existing networks in terms of audience growth, and even left behind in terms of the number of active users Instagram. Naturally, this could not but lead to the fact that everyone wants to create something similar. Attempts to do this and Instagram. First, he tested the new feature in some countries, and now he is starting to come out with an update around the world. Gradually, Reels – this is the name of the service – will appear everywhere, but for now, let's track the stages of its appearance, see where it already exists, and build our forecasts.
New items are always good. The main thing is that it is not just a copy of a successful project.
New service Instagram – Reels
Within months, the response Instagram to the popularity of TikTok, dubbed Reels, was through Early Access in countries such as Brazil, France, Germany and India. Given the size of these countries, it should be understood that the company has gathered enough information to expand into other markets.
Now the representative of Facebook, which owns Instagram, has confirmed the data that appeared earlier on the Web about the imminent launch of Reels in the USA. The release of a service focused on short music videos in the home Instagram market suggests that it will soon be expected around the world.
When Reels appears in Russia
If you believe the representative of the IT giant, the launch on the American market will take place in early August, that is, literally in two to three weeks. So far, without mentioning specific dates and names of countries, he added that Reels will soon arrive in more than 50 more countries, including the UK, Japan and Mexico. Most likely, Russia will be among them, but it is too early to speak about it with certainty.
There is no exact information yet on what platforms the new service will run on, but it will almost certainly run on both Android and iOS.
Like TikTok, Reels will likely work across all platforms.
Reels is very similar to TikTok. Its main focus, in contrast to Instagram, is short videos that are humorous, danceable or simply musical in nature. However, there is one fundamental difference between Reels and TikTok. Unlike the Chinese service, the American service will not allow publishing videos up to a minute in length, limiting it to fifteen seconds. There will also be slight differences in the recommendations and in the feed, but otherwise everything will be very similar.
Until the service has entered the wide market, it is too early to say that Instagram will be able to lure the audience away from TikTok, but there is a chance of this, especially against the background of the fact that recently TikTok has been experiencing serious difficulties with the governments of different countries . Examples include blockages in India and impending blockages in the US, which Mike Pompeo (US Secretary of State) talked about.
TikTok is on the verge or already on the verge of blocking in many countries.
Does TikTok collect user data
I don't want to go into the intricacies of conspiracies, but it may seem a little strange that just before the appearance of the analogue of TikTok, they want to ban it in the United States. Let me remind you that he was accused of collecting data in favor of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But what prevents Reels from also collecting data if it is a copy of TikTok. However, let's not talk about it, although you can put forward your theories in our Telegram chat.
It should be noted that only the American audience of TikTok is more than thirty million users, who, if banned, will have to go somewhere and look for an alternative to their favorite service. If she becomes Reels, few will be surprised.
TikTok itself does not agree with the blocking and claims that it has never sent user data to anyone, including the government of China. Moreover, so that there were no questions, the company deliberately moved all its servers outside the territory of the Middle Kingdom, but this convinces few people that Bytedance (the company that owns TikTok) does not cooperate with the PDA.
It's hard to say that TikTok has access to a lot of user data, but potentially whatever it sees it can process. Such thoughts are also prompted by the fact that TikTok drains the battery and heats up the phone.
Many associate TikTok too strongly with the Chinese government.
TikTok in India
TikTok's problems in some countries are for reasons other than potential espionage.
For example, in India there was a scandal with the display of content related to violence and other inappropriate scenes. As a result, the Indians staged almost a flash mob, in which they had to go in and put one star on the application on Google Play. As a result, the rating dropped to almost one.
Google intervened and decided that such reviews should be canceled. After she started doing this gradually and raised the rating to about three, it caused a serious resonance.
After all this, a real war began in the country with Chinese applications, which were blocked by dozens. For many developers, this was a major challenge given the size of the Indian market of 1.3 billion inhabitants.
Let's see what happens next, but to see what the alternative to TikTok will look like is interesting even to me, although, to be honest, I am not a fan of it, although I tried to use it for a long time.