Instagram Now Lets Users Fast-Forward Reels: Here's How It Works

Instagram is copying another TikTok feature, allowing users to fast-forward Reels. It will particularly help users speed up watching long Reels, similar to how YouTube videos can be played at faster speeds.

When watching a Reel, long-tapping the right edge of the Reel speeds it up by 2X. “Press edge to fast-forward” says the message that appears when a user tries to navigate a Reel’s duration by seeking forward.

The need for the ability to fast-forward Reels lies in Instagram’s expanded durations for its vertical videos. But TikTok thought of implementing such a feature first. When TikTok was first launched, videos were only 15 seconds long. However, the platform began to support videos of up to three minutes after it rose to fame, with top celebrities from around the world joining. TikTok added the fast-forward feature to let users speed up longer videos because they were trained to consume short-duration videos.

Instagram’s idea behind the fast-forward is exactly that as it also supports up to three-minute vertical videos. Fast-forwarding also lets users skim through the unnecessary portions of a Reel. Or maybe some users can grasp what a video is about even when it is playing fast. It also increases the chance of a user reaching the end of most videos, according to TechCrunch, as attention spans of internet users have decreased significantly, impacting their ability to sit through a long video.

In other news, Meta-owned WhatsApp has rolled out the ability to add music to Status updates. Users can tap the new music icon while posting a photo or a video to choose from “millions of songs” and add one to the Status. The feature is similar to that available for Instagram and Facebook Story. While photos can have music clips of up to 15 seconds, users can add 60 seconds of a song or a track to videos.

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