Meta has launched a range of new updates to make it as easy as possible for marketers and business owners to use its apps over the Christmas and new year spending frenzy.

Reels, feed photos, carousels and stories have all had an update, designed to help people “express their creativity, connect with their audiences and feel supported on our apps,” says Meta.

Plenty of new tools

First up, Meta has added new ways to create Reels on Instagram and is testing the ability to scale, crop and rotate individual clips while undo and redo features are also in the pipeline. 

Meta is also exploring how to help users create more memes by adding clips with audio and testing a feature that lets users add clips with audio to Reels via the GIF ‘Clip Hub’, which will let marketers add popular memes to their own content – which could help engagement.

Creators will soon be able to take advantage of 10 new English text-to-speech voices.

Meta

“Flex your creativity with six new text fonts and styles available in hundreds of languages. To help your text stand out even more, you can also add outlines for better clarity.”

The treats don’t stop there! Finding the right soundtrack to your Reel will be easier as Meta is testing new ways to access trending audio or the audio browser.

Meta

“You can now quickly jump to the audio page from the top of the camera roll and find what inspires you.”

Another change that might yield a collective sigh of relief from social media managers, especially those who work on mobile a lot, is a Drafts makeover that’ll make it easier to edit in-progress Reels as well as preview, rename and schedule drafts in advance. Furthermore, Insta has announced an easier way to search for the things marketers need during the editing process, which should save time.

Meta

“Find what you need more easily from your camera roll with better previews, the ability to zoom and search.”

Meta is also testing the ability to create custom stickers from your own photo and video – or from photos or videos you find on Instagram.

Meta

“We’re also starting to test the ability to make custom stickers from videos. The ability to create custom stickers takes learnings from our Segment Anything AI model.”

Segment Anything is an AI model from Meta that can ‘cut out’ any object, in any image, with a single click. It’s a tool that could save marketers a heap of time if they want to isolate one aspect of an image from the rest and result in quicker content generation.

Marketers will also be able to use new photo filters, including a host of different shifts and styles, designed to make posts look more engaging.

Finally, improved insights will help marketers better understand how Reels content is performing.

Meta

“We introduced a new Reels metric on Facebook and Instagram called Replays and we updated the definition of Reels Plays to also include Replays in addition to Initial Plays. You may notice an increase in your Reels Plays as a result of this.”

Meta is also rolling out an insight that lets creators see how many people are watching a Reel on a moment-by-moment basis. Combined, the updates should let marketers make better data-driven decisions

Faster production, better engagement

The updates should help streamline production for social media managers, many of whom will be flat out as Christmas gets closer and closer. Features that make it easier to edit, and to find the right clips for editing, could prove to be a massive time-saver, while an updated drafts process can do the same thing.

The introduction of tools such as custom stickers, new text-to-speech voices and a clip hub packed with memeable content should help to increase engagement as well.

All-in-all, if the updates can combine to provide a more efficient workflow and better results, it’ll be a job well done and a fine early Christmas present!