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Instagram’s dedicated Reels tab rolls out for India

The photo-sharing platform started testing Reels on Instagram earlier this month.

Instagram’s dedicated Reels tab rolls out for India

(Photo: Instagram)

Instagram on Friday launched a separate ‘Reels’ tab in India, which will act as a navigation bar replacing the Explore tab in the app.

This dedicated tab will only show Reels, and will have an immersive auto-playing video, a creation entry point that opens to the Reels camera and a sound on by default with a tap to toggle on/off, Instagram said.

The Explore tab can be accessed at the top right of your Feed on Instagram.

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The Facebook-owned entity made India, the first country to get the feature, that will enable users to easily discover short-video content.

In July, Instagram had unveiled its new format ‘Reels’ in India that allows users to create and share short videos.

“Earlier this month, we started testing a new tab on Instagram to make it easier to discover entertaining Reels. Today, we’re expanding this test in India to most of the country. India is the first market we’re launching in due to the interest and creativity we’ve seen,” Facebook India Director and Head of Partnerships Manish Chopra said in a statement on Friday.

With the help of Reels, now people can discover new creators more easily; one can record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects and new creative tools.

The photo-sharing platform started testing Reels on Instagram earlier this month.

Reels was introduced in India within weeks of the Indian government banning 59 mobile apps with Chinese links, including the popular short video platform TikTok terming these apps as prejudicial to sovereignty of the country, on June 29.

Earlier this week, the government had banned 118 more mobile apps, including popular gaming app PUBG, on similar grounds.

A number of homegrown short-video apps like Moj, Roposo and Chingari have seen downloads and usage zooming manifold after TikTok was banned.

Amid uncertainties surrounding TikTok’s business in the US, Facebook last month introduced Instagram Reels in the US.

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