Instagram rolled out the ability to download Reels posted by public accounts earlier this year in the US. The company has now confirmed that the feature is rolling out to users globally. Until now, Instagram users could share the reels on public profiles directly to their Stories or DMs. Users can also save those Reels, which they access through the saved Reels tabs on the application. With the help of the new feature though, users worldwide will now be able to share downloaded Reels through other platforms as well.
Instagram Head Adam Mosseri announced through his Broadcast channel that all users can now download Reels shared by public accounts and save them directly to their camera roll. He added that any of the reels downloaded natively will feature the Instagram handle of the creator as watermark. Since the feature is still rolling out to all users, it may take a while to reflect on your account.
Notably, even public accounts have the ability to turn off the Reels download feature, in which case, users will not be able to save Reels from those accounts to their galleries. Users can still Save those Reels for viewing later. You can tap the three dots and Save the concerned Reel and access it through the Saved tab.
If, however, the ability to download Reels is enabled in a public account, you can save the videos to your camera roll by tapping the Share button with the paper airplane icon on the desired Reel and then tapping on the Download option. On the other hand, if you have a public account, you can choose to turn off the default Download option for your Reels by going to Profile > Settings and Privacy > Sharing and Remixes > Downloading your Reels and then toggle off the download button.
Instagram users can, however, download their own Reels without a watermark from saved drafts and can also share those to their Stories or over Instagram DMs. To share Reels posted by public profiles via other social media apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., users previously had to copy and paste links to the relevant chats. Now, with the new update, Instagram Reels that are saved to camera rolls can be shared via other social media apps as a video file directly, without having to copy the URL.