Instagram Reels VS TikTok, Which One is Better?

Instagram Reels and TikTok are breaking the internet almost every day. Launched in September 2016, TikTok had a stratospheric rise, clocking at nearly 2 billion downloads. It’s fair to say that TikTok became a social media powerhouse. It’s basically a video sharing Chinese-owned app for mobile phones and tablets, which is used to make videos of short duration in genres such as dance, acting, education and so on. From 3 seconds to a minute. 

TikTok was and is still being used by a large population of nearly all ages, caste, creed and demographic groups. The illiterate in rural areas also used TikTok. The reason is that there is no text present in the application. It’s only videos so it’s easily comprehensible. However, the rise of TikTok application came to a stop abruptly. Government officials all across the globe deemed the application to be a threat to the integrity and sovereignty of their counties, because of the application’s parent company’s ties with China. This led a few countries, including India, to ban TikTok and eradicate the application from the Play Store and the App Store w.e.f. the 29th June 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, one person’s loss is another’s gain. 

Enter- Instagram Reels 

Instagram and Facebook then rubbed salt in the wounds of TikTok. Facebook-owned Instagram launched “Reels” on the 5th of August in 2020, in a bid to capture the market share which was previously owned by TikTok. Identical to TikTok, Reels is another application for smartphones for video-sharing. You can create a 15-second video with effects, music and other creative tools and share it directly on your feed. Bringing back smiles on the faces of past-TikTok users in India. Smart move Instagram!

Out of Instagram Reels and TikTok, Which One is Better?

Let’s understand the differences between both below-

• Users can record videos only up to 30 seconds in Reels.

Users can record videos for up to 60 seconds while using TikTok

• Instagram Reels does not offer a music option for business accounts yet. 

All Users have access to TikTok’s large library of music. 

• Downloaded Reels do not save with a watermark. 

Downloaded videos are saved with the TikTok watermark 

• The choice of using filters and effects on Reels is quite limited. 

In comparison, TikTok has a larger number of options available when it comes to effects.

Coming to a Conclusion

After glancing at the above table, it is quite obvious that TikTok has better features than Instagram Reels. Maybe because it is older in the market and has had more time to improve and work on it. But, it’s also important to remember that Instagram Reels is much more recent and is rolling out new updates every now and then. So you certainly can’t write them off. One major point of difference is that TikTok may or may not be available in the country you’re living in. So that doesn’t leave us with too many options. 

In the end, choosing which one out of the two is better can be opinionated as well. It all boils down to your choice. Both social media, video-sharing applications are a great way to connect with your audience and can be a major contributor to the awareness of your brand or product. For more digital marketing solutions, you can always connect with Pjsoft Ventures, a digital marketing agency, with a proven track record in marketing, lead generation, SEO, SEM, UI/UX development, website designing and everything in between. Feel free to get in touch with us in kind of any query- +91 86555 41041. Thank you!