If you have (or want) an active following on both Instagram and TikTok, you may want to stop reposting TikTok videos to Reels, as Instagram is now actively reducing the discoverability of Reels posted from other apps. While recycled clips are not banned, per se, Instagram’s algorithm now searches for watermarks from other apps to make sure that content is less likely to show up in the trending Reels tab.
Instagram says it’s making the change in response to user complaints that “low video quality reels (i.e. blurry due to low resolution) or content that is visibly recycled from other apps (i.e. contains logos or watermarks) makes the Reels experience less satisfying.”
To be fair, there’s a legitimate concern—Instagram Reels is full of sketchy accounts that repost other people’s content, often without permission, just to snag a few likes and follows. It’s a major problem that many creators have to deal with. However, even if the stricter algorithm deters sketchy reposters from uploading content they don’t own, it’s also likely Instagram isn’t stoked that its Reels tab is free advertising for a competitor 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 also outlined new best practices for getting your Reels content noticed, but the best way around the new anti-TikTok algorithm is to shoot and post Reels directly n Instagram.
While you can still recycle a TikTok video on Instagram Reels, it’s a gamble. There are ways to crop or blur the TikTok logo and account handles from videos using third-party apps (skeevy reposters do it all the time), but these edits reduce the original image quality. Since Instagram is also making blurry or low-quality footage less discoverable in Reels, cropping out or obscuring any TikTok branding could be just as damaging to your video’s performance as posting it with the watermarks intact. Unfortunately, that’s the only option if you really want to cross-post from TikTok to Instagram Reels.
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