Our Experience with Instagram's New Edits App: What You Need to Know
- Ciara Martin
- May 3
- 3 min read
Instagram just rolled out its new standalone editing app, Edits, and we dove in headfirst to see if it’s worth adding to your content creation toolkit. The short answer? It’s promising… with a few quirks. If you're a brand or social media manager wondering whether to make the switch, here's what we found:
The Editing Experience: Familiar but Sharper
The interface feels very similar to Instagram’s in-platform editor, but with noticeable upgrades. One standout: clip snapping is way more precise. No more endless zooming into the timeline just to get text to appear at the perfect millisecond, Edits handles that with far less fuss.
Captions + Voice Tools: Still Playing Catch-Up to TikTok
Voice-to-text is decent, and captions are intuitive to apply. One gripe? You can’t insert your own line breaks (yet). As for voice effects, they’re still lacking polish, especially compared to TikTok’s natural-sounding AI narration options.
Content Management: Heads Up for Brand Pages
While you log into Edits with your brand’s Instagram account, tapping “Share to Instagram” opens the last open account used. Double-check your active Instagram account in-app before exporting! Also worth noting: there's no “Save to Drafts” option after exporting. You can still schedule posts from within Instagram, but the button says “Share."
Video Cutouts & Effects: Major Creative Potential
The cutout tool with object tracking is surprisingly powerful. We tested a few clips, and the results were clean, smooth, and ready for storytelling. Expect this to open new doors for visuals, think layered product demos, talking heads, or playful educational content.
Other notable upgrades:
Extract Audio from video clips, much like you’d do in Splice or CapCut.
A broader SFX library, with more subtle background options (finally!) mixed in with the usual cartoon-style sound bites (even an ASMR category).
Over 50 new fonts that feel more in line with modern creator aesthetics (think Mojo-level design options).
A Note on Audio & Copyright
One major change: videos download to your camera roll with audio included. Videos in-app have typically downloaded muted. While convenient, this can be risky when using music from Meta’s sound library and original audios. These tracks are cleared for use within Meta platforms only. If you plan to repurpose content on TikTok or YouTube Shorts, it’s best to:
Locate the original track natively in that platform and ensure you have the rights to use it.
Choose different royalty-free audio instead (platforms like Splice, Envato, and SoundStripe have a great mix).
Does Content from Edits Perform Better?
It’s early, but Instagram is clearly incentivizing use of the app. The “Inspiration” feed in Edits suggests a push toward discoverability, meaning content made here might benefit from some quiet algorithmic love.
Our Verdict
Edits feels like a solid move toward more professional-grade editing tools without leaving Instagram’s ecosystem. It’s not a TikTok or CapCut killer, but it’s a big step up from the in-app experience, especially for time-saving and creative control. We are looking forward to seeing some of the additional features Instagram have shared will be coming soon such as:
Keyframes for precise editing.
Modifying videos with AI.
Collaboration by sharing drafts with friends for feedback or creative builds.
More fonts, animations, transitions, filters, voice effects, and music options!
Bottom line: If you’re managing social content for a brand or agency or even your personal account, Edits is worth exploring. Just be mindful of account switching, audio rights, and workflow tweaks.
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