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Luke

Account Executive

06 May, 2025 • Reading time: 5 minutes

Meta publicly launches Edits, touted as their answer to CapCut

Edits launched publicly on 22 April 2025. The app allows users to quickly edit video content on their phones, adding audio, text overlays, closed captions, sound effects and more.

Upon opening the Edits app, users will be greeted with five main tabs:
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  • Ideas: a space to jot down your ideas on virtual sticky notes, as well as where users can find Reels that they have previously saved on Instagram.
  • Inspiration: this is where users can find trending Reels, but unlike the view in the Instagram app, this includes a handy “Use audio” button. This means users can quickly adopt trending audio for their own video projects.
  • Projects: the tab where users can see their video projects, as well as where they can upload any videos currently on their phone storage that they would like to edit in the app.
  • Recording: this is where users can directly record footage in the app.
  • Insights: this shows users their Instagram Reels engagement data (Reels views, reach, net followers, etc.)
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Our thoughts

 

While Edits can be used as a more general video editing app rather than an Instagram Reels editor, it’s evident that the app wants users to turn their video projects into Reels. This is clear for several reasons:

 

  1. Users need to have an Instagram account in order to use the Edits app.
  2. The ‘Ideas’ tab only allows users to store Instagram Reels, and not other examples of video projects.
  3. The ‘Inspiration’ tab shows users trending Reels.
  4. The ‘Insights’ tab shows performance metrics for Reels.
Of course, given that Meta has developed this app, it’s unsurprising that they would nudge users towards one of their own platforms. However, the app can still be used to edit videos for other purposes; finished projects can be exported, at which point they will be stored on the user’s device.Edits is essentially Meta’s answer to CapCut, a longer-established video editing app that is owned by ByteDance (TikTok’s  parent company). There are some notable differences between these apps though:

 

  • CapCut does not require an account, so users are able to download the app and use it as a ‘guest’.
  • Edits is free to use, whereas CapCut has membership options – free, standard and pro.
  • Edits is arguably simpler and so may provide a more seamless experience for users who are less familiar with video editing, but more competent video editors may therefore prefer CapCut for its broader features.
  • CapCut users with a pro membership are able to use the app on desktop devices.
This app launch is, of course, most relevant to clients who use Instagram frequently, and this could make Reels production much easier than it previously was. However, the launch of this app also has wider reaching significance; the rising popularity of video content on social media platforms, including LinkedIn, and longer-form video content (Instagram this year increased the maximum duration of Reels) means that clients should consider whether their work might be well suited to the video format.If a client does opt to share more video content, they could aim to record footage during conferences and summits; while we tend to ask clients to share photos from such events, they could additionally share video footage with us, which we could then easily edit via this tool (if not CapCut or Canva).

 

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