Think Twice Before Posting Your TikTok on Instagram Reels
If you have (or want) active followers on both Instagram and TikTok, you can stop reposting TikTok videos on Reels, as Instagram is now actively reducing the ability to detect videos posted from other apps. While redesigned clips are not banned, Instagram’s algorithm now looks for watermarks from other apps to make sure content is less likely to show up in the trending videos tab.
Instagram says it is making the change in response to user complaints that “videos with low video quality (i.e. blurry due to low resolution) or content clearly reworked from other apps (i.e. containing logos or watermarks) signs) make working with Reels less satisfying. “
To be honest, there is a legitimate concern: Instagram Reels is full of sketchy accounts that repost other people’s content, often without permission, just to get a few likes and followers. This is a serious problem that many creators have to deal with. However, even if a stricter algorithm keeps sketchy repostors from downloading content they don’t own, it’s also likely that Instagram isn’t happy with its Reels tab being free ads for a competing app, even if the new rules affect legitimate content creators. who share their videos on both platforms.
To help content creators worried about the new algorithm, Instagram has also laid out new best practices for drawing attention to Reels content, but the best way to get around the new algorithm against TikTok is to shoot and post Reels directly to Instagram.
While you can still recycle TikTok videos to Instagram Reels, it’s a gamble. There are ways to crop or blur the TikTok logo and account descriptors from videos using third-party apps (reposters do this all the time), but these edits reduce the quality of the original image. Since Instagram also makes blurry or low-quality footage less visible in Reels, cropping or darkening any TikTok branding can do the same damage to your video’s performance as posting it with intact watermarks. Unfortunately, this is the only option if you really want to cross-post from TikTok to Instagram Reels.