Social networking apps like Instagram are taking advantage of China’s ByteDance-owned TikTok’s uncertain future in the United States. Most of these apps, especially Meta-owned Instagram, have copied many features from TikTok in the past few months.

Instagram overtook TikTok as the world's most downloaded app last year, at least in part thanks to the Reels feature it launched back in 2020 to take on its Chinese rival. While short-form videos on Meta's platform have improved over the years, many users think that Instagram is still no match for TikTok when it comes to bite-sized clips.

Instagram has silently introduced a significant feature for its app that allows users to double the playback speed of Reels. This significant move aligns with its strategy to prioritise short-form content over long videos.