Meta — the parent company of platforms like Facebook and Instagram, announced this week that the Facebook Reels feature has rolled out to more than 150 countries globally.
The Facebook Reels feature is now available worldwide for both iOS and Android users.
“Watching video is half of time spent on Facebook and Instagram, and Reels is our fastest growing content format by far,” parent company Meta explained in a blog post. “ We’re focused on making Reels the best way for creators to get discovered, connect with their audience and earn money. We also want to make it fun and easy for people to find and share relevant and entertaining content.”
Facebook Reels Features
Creators around the world will be able to access:
- Remix: Create your own reel alongside an existing, publicly-shared reel on Facebook. When you create a Remix, you can create a reel that includes all or part of another creator’s reel.
- 60-second Reels: Make reels up to 60 seconds long.
- Drafts: You will soon be able to create a reel and choose to “Save As Draft” below the Save button.
- Video Clipping: In the coming months, we’re planning to roll out video clipping tools that will make it easier for creators who publish live or long-form, recorded videos to test different formats.
Upcoming features on Facebook Reels
Over the coming weeks, you can look out for the following updates:
- Reels in Stories: You can share public reels to Stories on Facebook, making it easy to share favorite reels with friends and giving creators more visibility and reach. You’ll also be able to create reels from existing public stories.
- Reels in Watch: You’ll be able to watch reels directly within the Watch tab and we’re developing tools to help you create reels in the Watch tab as well.
- Top of Feed: We’re adding a new Reels label at the top of Feed so you’ll be able to easily create and watch reels in just a few clicks.
- Suggested Reels in Feed: In select countries, we’re starting to suggest reels that you may like in your Feed from people you do not already follow.
Meta is also exploring ways to make it easier for creators to share Reels to both their Facebook and Instagram audiences, such as crossposting.
In addition, the company announced that it will be expanding tests of overlay ads to help creators earn money for their Facebook Reels.
What are overlay ads?
Overlay ads are placed directly on top of a Facebook Reel in a banner or sticker format. Overlay ads appear transparently over reels content, meaning that people can view the ad without interrupting the reels content they’re consuming. If an overlay ad is included in your reel, you’ll earn a portion of the advertising revenue.
However, at this moment Meta is expanding overlay ads tests to creators in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and by mid-March, these tests will expand to creators in nearly all countries where in-stream ads are available.
Share your thoughts on this article and join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.
