Instagram Will Use Its Upcoming Video Editing App, Edits, as a Testing Ground for New Features

Adam Mosseri / AMA

In response to a question about editing tools for Instagram during a recent AMA, Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed that new creative editing features will be tested in the upcoming Edits app. Features that prove successful will then be integrated into Instagram.

Mosseri stated:

We want to make sure that there are the best possible creative tools for making not only Reels but [for] photos both in the Instagram app and then for video in the Edits app. They’re built on the same codebase, and you’re going to see probably new features be tried first in the Edits app first over time, and the ones that work, we’ll probably integrate into the main app.

Why It Matters: While the main focus of Edits will be to help creators produce mobile-first videos for Instagram and other platforms, it will also serve as a testing ground for new features for Instagram, something I predicted.

By testing new features in Edits first, Instagram will be able to understand which tools resonate with creators, which are better suited for Edits, and which should eventually be integrated into Instagram natively. It can also help reduce potential “misses” by Instagram, where a creative feature is added directly to the app but doesn’t resonate with creators.

More broadly, this highlights how social media companies have been utilizing standalone apps to test new formats and features. For example, Pinterest launched Shuffles as a standalone app, which eventually led to the launch of its popular Collages feature. More recently, ByteDance has been bringing features from CapCut over to TikTok, which could serve as a blueprint for how Instagram approaches Edits as testing ground.