Instagram bets on Edits app to lock in creators as platform wars intensify

Instagram's standalone Edits app aims to establish itself as the single creative hub for video creators, moving beyond typical editing-only tools.

Peter Shields, Meta's Director of Creator Product Marketing, stated the missing value in the market was a tool that captured the end-to-end creation journey. This includes inspiration, ideation, scripting, finding sounds, and performance analytics—steps that often require creators to use multiple applications.

"Our realisation was that no one was capturing the end-to-end journey...If you can do everything in one place, you no longer need multiple apps," Shields said.

Growth and Features

The move comes as Meta competes for creators with rival platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

Six months after its global launch in April, over half of daily Reels viewers see content made with Edits.

The app saw weekly active users almost double in the third quarter, with monthly active users growing 40 percent in September.

Weekly new users in India have reportedly doubled compared to the previous week.

The Restyle generative AI feature, which lets users change video elements through presets, is driving growth. A snow effect, in particular, boosted Indian user acquisition.

Audience and Future

Edits is designed for creators with advanced, comprehensive needs, while in-app tools serve casual users.

Advanced features include keyframes for animating individual elements and a teleprompter that lets users read scripts directly from the camera view.

The app currently offers all features free of charge.

Instagram is "co-building" the product roadmap with an informal "Edits Council" of creators, gathering weekly feedback.

Future development will focus on further localization, with plans to introduce more local fonts and localized effects. The company will also use AI to improve creative efficiency with tools like image-to-video conversion and automatic background removal (cutouts).