After making the feature available in the US alone, Instagram has made the ability to download Reels from public accounts onto your devices available to the entire world. This allows users to send the videos to their friends and family using other platforms or just save them to their phones for offline viewing.
Instagram’s main concern regarding this trait has always been the fact that Reels can feature copyrighted music, other than copyrighted content. A warning that the downloaded Reel cannot be used for commercial projects does hence pop up when you make your first download.
This ability was first introduced in the US in June of this year. And now, company head Adam Mosseri has announced its release for the rest of the world via his broadcast channel on the app. Every downloaded Reel will feature a watermark bearing the content creator’s Instagram handle.
Of course, you can only download Reels from public accounts. Moreover, a public account can opt out of letting users download their Reels if they wish to. They can head into Profile > Settings and Privacy > Sharing and Remixes > Downloading your Reels, and turn the toggle off.
As for how you can download a Reel, it’s pretty simple. Just click on the Share icon (the paper plane icon) on any Reel you’re watching, and if that public account has kept the feature enabled, you will spot a Download button at the bottom that will save the video to your phone’s memory.
If the feature is not enabled, you can still continue to save the Instagram Reel within the app the traditional way. This means you can go back to the content whenever you want, provided you’re within the app and have an active Internet connection.