Does Instagram’s Edits app really make Reels easier?

I’ve never been a big Reels guy on Instagram. Sure, I’ll spend far too long scrolling through them here and there, but I rarely try my hand at making one. After all, as a photographer for my local run club, it’s easier to string together a slider of photos when I want to post something because I don’t know the first thing about video editing.

But then, Instagram came up with a solution. It launched an all-in-one Reels command center, combining tabs for inspiration, editing, and in-app video recording, along with a way to check the views and interactions for your Reels once they’re posted. And, since I’ve always heard that Reels get more engagement than photos, I decided to try it out. Here’s how my week with Instagram’s Edits app went.

Going into my Edits adventure, I decided I wanted to give every last aspect of the app its fair shake. That meant working my way across the tabs, starting with some inspiration, leaving some notes — Edits calls them Stickies — as I came up with ideas, and then ultimately working through a couple of Reels once I felt somewhat comfortable with the process. At first, that plan went brilliantly.

Everything that Edits does in terms of exposing you to other Reels and giving you access to trending audio is excellent. It automatically draws in the content you’ve saved on Instagram, as well as a scrollable feed of the accounts that you follow and a tab marked Inspiration that’s kind of like your For You page, just with a little less control. For me, the Following tab proved the most helpful, as it gave me Reels from accounts that I already care about, which made me more willing to copy their formatting and pinch their audio.

So, that’s what I did. I scrolled through perhaps a few too many working minutes’ worth of inspiration until I found something that spoke to me. As it turned out, it wasn’t a format that caught my eye or ear. Instead, what drew me in was a two-minute clip from Kermit the Frog’s recent commencement speech at the University of Maryland.

In it, he talks about how life isn’t a solo act but an ensemble piece surrounded by the people you care about. To me, it felt like he was referring to the run club that I’m a part of every Thursday, a group that’s given me many of my closest friends. So, I took about the first minute of his speech and put it into a slideshow of my most recent running photos. Is it glamorous? No, not really, but it struck a sentimental chord, and that was good enough for me.

I’ll also readily admit that was the only Reel I worked through from start to finish during my week with Edits. Although I recorded a few clips here and there with the app’s built-in capture tab, I had a tougher time with the video editing learning curve than I expected. The fact that Edits simply sticks you with a row of buttons for Audio, Text, Voice, Captions, Overlay, Sound FX, and more, and then expects you to know what to do is, well, overwhelming. I picked up on the fact that I’d have to split my audio clip to make it line up with the photos I’d chosen, but then I also quickly realized I’d have to cut the length of each photo individually to get a good match.

It’s almost like Edits is missing something very important…

Oh, right, because it is. As I quickly learned, there’s no way to access templates in Instagram’s brand-new Edits app. They just don’t exist. You can get inspiration and pull audio, but don’t try inserting your clips into an existing format — it’s too confusing. You know where you can create Reels from templates, though? Instagram itself. For all the sense it makes, Instagram might be a more beginner-friendly way to make Reels than the dedicated way to make Reels. I dunno, man.

Although I went into my week with Edits thinking I’d become a super-confident, Reel-making expert, I can now report that’s not the case. I feel fine about the process, but there’s no good way to cheat the learning curve, as it were. However, I also know that making Reels in Edits is only part of the attraction. Just as important is the rest of the data it gives you on what you post, as well as the inspiration that I found so helpful.

I think Edits does a pretty solid job on the analytics front, too. It gives you insights into each Reel you post, breaking down everything from the skip rate to the like rate, as well as the average watch time, and then presents a larger view of your total Reels viewcount, the number of accounts you reach, and how many followers you’ve gained over the last 30 days. If you want to get a little nerdy or try to boost your Instagram presence, it’s probably the most convenient way to do so.

No matter how I feel about the analytics or the lack of easily editable templates, though, I have to say that I like the motivation behind Edits. If you already have the basics of video editing and want a quick, Instagram-molded way to chop up a Reel, it’s excellent. To some people, the row of buttons and the filmstrip-like editing timeline will be second nature, and they already intimidate me less than they did just a few days ago.

I’m still nowhere near the creativity or level of video inspiration of some of my colleagues here at Android Authority, but I do have a greater respect for the thought and care that goes into something as simple as a one-minute video that a 14-year-old is going to breeze right past on his very first iPhone.