What Are Reels on Instagram and Facebook?
Reels are short, vertical, full-screen videos on Instagram and Facebook, made with music, effects and text, that the apps can recommend to people who don’t follow you. One video is “a reel”; Reels with a capital R is the feature. Unlike a Story, a reel stays on your profile until you delete it.
Looking for a different reel? The fishing reel, the Scottish and Irish dance and the demo reel are further down.
Reels have been part of Instagram since August 2020, so the definition stays short here; the rest answers what people ask next, from Trial Reels to why a reel gets no views.
Table of Contents
- What Are Reels, and Where Do They Show Up?
- How Are Reels Different From Stories, Feed Videos, TikTok and Shorts?
- What’s Different About Reels in 2026?
- What Are Trial Reels, and Who Can Use Them?
- Why Does a Reel Get No Views?
- Why Is Some Music Missing on Business Accounts?
- What Else Can “Reel” Mean?
- Which Other Instagram Terms Go With Reels?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Reels, and Where Do They Show Up?
What are Instagram Reels in practice? You film or upload clips, add a song, text or effects, and publish one full-screen video that loops. On a public account, a reel can show up in followers’ Feed, the Reels viewer, Explore, the pages for its audio, effect or hashtags, and the Reels section of your profile. On a private account, only approved followers can see or share it, and nobody can reuse your audio or remix it.
Instagram launched Reels in August 2020 as 15-second, multi-clip videos, after testing them in Brazil from late 2019. From mid-2022, new video posts under 15 minutes were shared as reels, so nearly every standalone Instagram video today is a reel.
In everyday use it’s lowercase and casual:
- Caption: “New reel: my whole Sunday reset in 30 seconds.”
- DM: “sent you a reel, watch it with the sound on”
- Comment: “saving this reel for the next time I make rice”
How Are Reels Different From Stories, Feed Videos, TikTok and Shorts?
Reels are built to reach new people; Stories are built for the people who already follow you. The table follows from that.
| Format | How long it stays up | Who sees it | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram reel | Until you delete it | Followers, plus non-followers if your account is public | Reaching new viewers |
| Instagram story | 24 hours, unless saved to a Highlight | Mostly followers, at the top of their app | Quick, casual updates |
| Feed video (in a carousel) | Until you delete it | Followers first; Instagram can also recommend it | A clip that belongs with photos |
| TikTok video | Until you delete it | Followers, plus non-followers on the For You feed | TikTok’s own audience and trends |
| YouTube Short | Until you delete it | Subscribers, plus non-subscribers in the Shorts feed | Pointing viewers to your long videos |
“Feed video” is mostly history on Instagram. Since new videos became reels, a video that isn’t a reel usually lives inside a carousel, next to photos; here is what a carousel is on Instagram. Stories are measured differently, too: a Forward in their insights is someone skipping ahead to your next frame, as explained in what Forward means in Instagram Story insights.
Posting one video to several platforms? Outfeed AI publishes it to Instagram as a reel from a chat message (“post this to Instagram on Thursday at 6pm”) and previews each platform before anything goes out.
What’s Different About Reels in 2026?
Reels in 2026 run longer, can be tested on strangers first, and are Facebook’s default format for video. Each change is dated, so you can spot a stale guide:
- December 2024, Trial Reels: test a reel on non-followers first (next section).
- June 2025, every Facebook video became a reel: in its 17 June announcement on Facebook video, Meta said all videos would be shared as reels, with no length or format restrictions, and renamed the Video tab the Reels tab.
- December 2025, five hashtags: Instagram began capping captions on reels and posts at five hashtags. Our guide to choosing hashtags for Instagram Reels covers how to spend them.
- April 2026, wider originality rules: accounts that mainly post unoriginal content now lose recommendation eligibility for photos and carousels, not just reels.
- September 2026, 20 minutes to record, three to be recommended: Instagram’s help page on recording a reel says you can record and edit reels up to 20 minutes, but reels over three minutes won’t be recommended to new audiences.
What Are Trial Reels, and Who Can Use Them?
A trial reel is a reel that Instagram shows to people who don’t follow you first, so you can see how it performs before your followers do. Meta introduced trial reels on 10 December 2024, and Instagram’s help page on trial reels sets out who can use them: a public account with at least 200 followers if it is a professional (creator or business) account, or at least 1,000 if it is a personal one. Accounts that can’t currently appear in recommendations lose access until they can.
A trial runs like this:
- Record a new reel and tap Trial before you share it. A trial of something you’ve already posted can get limited reach.
- Followers won’t see it in Feed or the Reels tab, and it stays off your profile, though some may still come across it in a DM or on its audio page.
- Within 24 hours you get its views, likes, comments and shares.
- Tap Share to everyone if it’s working, or turn on Share to everyone automatically and Instagram shares it for you if it performs well soon after posting, judged on signals like views and engagement.
Use one when your followers might not expect the idea, and skip it for anything time-sensitive, since the first numbers can take a day. Instagram says trial reels are evaluated independently in its ranking and don’t affect how your standard reels perform, so a trial that flops doesn’t drag down your other reels.
Why Does a Reel Get No Views?
Usually something stops it from reaching anyone new. Check the four gates Instagram documents first:
- The account is private. Only approved followers can see and share your reels.
- It’s longer than the recommendation limit in the September 2026 entry above, so it won’t be shown to new audiences.
- It looks recycled. Instagram’s reach guidance says it is less likely to recommend reposted reels, content with noticeable watermarks, or accounts that mostly reshare other people’s content.
- It’s still a trial. Followers won’t see a trial reel until you share it with everyone, and trials can take longer to pick up views.
If none of those apply, it’s ranking. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in January 2025 that watch time, likes and sends matter most, and our guide to how the Instagram algorithm works covers the rest.
Why Is Some Music Missing on Business Accounts?
Because Instagram’s licensed music library is meant for personal, non-commercial use, certain business accounts and types of posts don’t get access, and licensed music can be unavailable in some countries, per Instagram’s page on access to the music library. Accounts without the library may be able to use Meta’s Sound Collection instead.
Every account can still use original audio, a voiceover or on-screen text, a sturdier base for brand reels than a borrowed song. If Instagram’s deals with rights holders change, an older reel’s track can be muted; the reel stays viewable, just silent.
What Else Can “Reel” Mean?
Outside social media, a reel is usually a spool, a dance or a showreel. The social media reels meaning is the newest, and Cambridge Dictionary now lists reel as “a name for a short video posted on a social media website.” The older senses:
- Spool: a round holder for thread, fishing line, film or wire, hence fishing reels, film reels and reel-to-reel tape.
- Dance: a fast Scottish or Irish dance, or the music played for it.
- Demo reel: in film and video work, a short compilation of someone’s best clips, also called a showreel.
- Verb: to stagger, or to feel stunned (“still reeling from the news”). To reel something in is to wind it in, like a fish on a line.
Which Other Instagram Terms Go With Reels?
- Remix: recording your own video next to someone else’s reel.
- Original audio: sound you recorded yourself, which anyone can reuse in a reel if your account is public.
- Story: a post that disappears after 24 hours unless saved to a Highlight.
- Carousel: up to 20 photos or videos in one swipeable post.
The full A to Z is in our social media glossary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a reel on Instagram?
A reel is one short, vertical, full-screen video made with Instagram’s Reels feature, usually with music, text or effects. It stays on your profile until you delete it, and on a public account Instagram can show it to people who don’t follow you. Reels over three minutes aren’t recommended to new audiences.
What is a trial reel?
A trial reel is a reel Instagram shows to people who don’t follow you first. Followers won’t see it in Feed or the Reels tab until you share it. Within 24 hours you get its views, likes, comments and shares, then share it with everyone, or let Instagram do it automatically if it performs well soon after posting.
Do Reels disappear after 24 hours?
No. Reels stay on your profile until you delete them. Stories are the format that disappears after 24 hours, unless you save one to a Highlight, which is why quick, casual updates suit a story and anything meant to last suits a reel.
Are Reels the same as TikTok videos?
Close, but not the same. Both are short, vertical, sound-on videos that can reach people who don’t follow you, but they live in separate apps with separate audiences. Posting one video to both? Upload a clean file to each, because Instagram says it is less likely to recommend content with noticeable watermarks.
What are Reels on Facebook?
On Facebook, Reels is now the name for video in general. Meta announced on 17 June 2025 that all videos on Facebook would be shared as reels, with no length or format restrictions, and renamed the Video tab the Reels tab. Instagram reels you share to Facebook also appear there as reels.