Instagram is rushing out a new video editing app that sure sounds a lot like CapCut

Instagram head Adam Mosseri took to Threads on Sunday with yet another announcement this weekend, the timing of which surely had nothing at all to do with TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps (briefly) going dark: a new, free video-editing app called Edits is on the way. Instagram’s Edits will cater to people who edit videos on their phone, and will offer “a full suite of creative tools.” That includes higher-quality recordings, shareable drafts, trending audio, insights about your Reels’ performance and an “inspiration tab,” on top of the usual editing tools.

If all that reminds you of CapCut, TikTok’s sister app for video editing, you’re not alone. In response to the immediate comparisons, Mosseri called Edits “CapCut, but more for creators than casual video makers.”

Edits isn’t available yet, but you can pre-order it on the App Store if you’re an iOS user and Mosseri says an Android version is “coming soon.” While he puts the release sometime in February, the App Store page says March 13. And don’t expect anything too polished when it arrives. “The first version is going to be incomplete, so please be patient, but I’m really excited to put this in all your hands,” Mosseri said.

The announcement came shortly after TikTok said its app was coming back online in the US, a mere 12 hours or so after it shut down. CapCut hasn’t come back yet, but it’s expected to follow suit. Trump said on social media that he would announce an executive order after he’s sworn in that would extend ByteDance’s time to sort out TikTok’s future.

While Threads users have been calling Instagram out for the timing of the announcement, Mosseri said the app has been in development for months, “and I think it’ll end up pretty different than CapCut.” On that note, he said, “Edits will have a much broader range of creative tools and probably a smaller addressable audience. Think a place to track all your ideas instead of templates. Think AI video editing tools on a per clip or per video basis. Think new insights on why your videos are succeeding or struggling.”

One way it appears Edits may have a leg up on CapCut, at least, is the App Store page says videos won’t have a watermark when they’re exported. While the free version of CapCut has long added the easily removable ending logo to videos at the time of export, it recently started adding a corner watermark too.

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