Whenever you see a cool Instagram Reel and want to save it for later, the chances are that you have always had to just save it to Instagram. That is, unless you live in the United States where people have been able to download Reels ever since June. However, that's all changing now with the news that Instagram is rolling out downloadable Reels to everyone all around the globe.
The new change was announced by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri in a post to his Instagram channel and comes after months of only those in the United States having the option to physically download Reels.
However, there is still going to be a catch. As TechCrunch points out, Reels that are downloaded from Instagram will have a watermark that has the Instagram logo and the account's name. That isn't new of course, because we already see the same thing done by TikTok and YouTube and it's obvious why - it's to ensure that anything ripped from one service shows where it came from if it's uploaded somewhere else.
Another wrinkle is the fact that Reels with licensed music will be downloaded sans audio, so only those with original audio will have any sound. Something to keep in mind if you're the one doing the downloading.
Don't want your hard work downloaded at all? There is an option to prevent anyone from downloading Reels that you create by heading into Settings > Privacy > Reels and Remix and tapping on the "Allow people to download your Reels" toggle.
