It’s the war of the 2 short form video platforms: TikTok vs Instagram Reels. Both popular sites for social media users, but which one is the true ‘champion’.
First things first, what kind of platforms are they?
These apps enable creators to record, edit and share short video content. Each video can be 60 seconds or less, and is usually set to popular background music that reflects the content of the short video. However both platform do differ from the other, with some platforms having advantages over others.
TikTok
So let’s start with the original short video app. TikTok began as a platform to share videos of songs/ dances to popular songs. It has since expanded to different genres of video such as educational clips, entertainment and comedy and also news.
Video length: 15 seconds, 60 seconds and 3 minutes. TikTok has recently allowed some users to access a 3 minute feature, where they can record anywhere from 1 seconds to 3 minutes.
Music library: TikTok has an extensive library however some audio is limited to 30 seconds
Pros: TikTok is the best platform if you want to go viral simply because of the ‘for you page’ . A section on the app which shares random videos to your feed.
Cons: TikTok rolls out new features quite slowly and only allows a limited amount of users to access them to begin with. Most recent features include closed captions and scrubbing.
Instagram was the next platform to offer a ‘short video’ segment which they named ‘Reels’. Pretty much entirely based off of TikTok and sadly without as much success. They are trying to combat this by changing their algorithm to support and increase the reach on accounts that post Reels regularly.
Video length: 30 seconds. Instagram only allows for a video to be filmed 30 seconds or under, which sometimes isn’t enough for quality content. However, users love it for the fact that a lot of videos are snappier, concise and easier to consume.
Music library: Slightly more limited than TikTok but still a decent range of songs and audio samples.
Pros: It comes with the rest of the platform. Reels, IGTV, Stories, Messages all in one place for ease of the user.
Cons: It’s a lot harder to go viral on Reels than TikTok. And with TikTok being the original, people will tend to go there first.
Conclusion?
So that’s a low down on the 2 most popular short form video platforms. But has it helped make up your mind on which one is the best?
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