You’ve probably experienced this before: You’re scrolling through Instagram Reels and come across a video that looks cook, but you don’t have a whopping three minutes to watch it in full. Or, maybe you were in the middle of a tutorial and missed a step, but you can’t rewind to the part you need to revisit, so you’re stuck having to watch the entire video before you can keep scrolling or play it back. Well, those problems are about to be in the past.
On March 27, Instagram began globally rolling out the option to play IG Reels at 2x speed. You know the drill: Users will be able to hold down on the right or left edge of the screen to have a Reel play in 2x speed. You can also replay your favorite part of the reel over and over again. Finally!
This is a highly requested Reels update that Instagram users have been waiting for, and it comes almost two years after TikTok introduced this feature on its platform. With this update, IG Reels may very well be positioning itself as a top alternative for short-form video content ahead of TikTok’s impending ban. After weeks of uncertainty of the app’s future, on Jan. 18, President Donald Trump extended the ban deadline to April 4, giving parent company ByteDance extra time to find a U.S. buyer to buy the app. Up until today, there has been no confirmation on who will buy the app, or if the app will be gone from the app store again, so many social media users have been scrambling to figure out which platform will be the best bet to replace TikTok if need be.Â
There have been a lot of apps suggested as alternatives for creators and consumers, but IMO, with this new update, IG Reels seems like a pretty solid alternative. You get to scroll through and post static posts, make creative IG Stories (including updating all the girlies on your Close Friends), chat with your besties, and now watch Reels in 2x speed and playback your favorite moments.Â
BRB, I’m heading to the app store to update IG and scrolling through my favorite creators’ Reels (in 2x speed, obvi).