Instagram has a TikTok now...promoting Reels

Instagram has launched an official, verified TikTok account under its creator umbrella.

The social media competitor's first video, posted Tuesday, shared the news with a caption reading: "We're here! Follow along as creators help share the latest product news, best practices and tips + tricks, directly from us at Instagram."

It's yet another social media app on a social media app.

And yet, one of the purposes of Instagram on TikTok is even more ironic than the statement above. It appears, from early content, that Instagram has procured influencers and social experts to appear on their TikTok in order to promote Reels: the not-so-subtle TikTok lookalike by Instagram.

Take two examples, posted in the last 17 hours. A video by @thesocialista on the Instagram Creators' TikTok account shares advice for increasing visibility on Reels, such as using trending audio and sticking to a niche subject. Then, influencer coach @lissettecalv offered tips on how to cope when a Reel doesn't perform as well as expected.

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This is probably just the beginning of Reel-related content on Instagram's TikTok, considering the account is just a day old. At the moment, the account is just shy of 1,000 followers.

The rabbit hole of apps-on-apps-on-apps gets funnier with the fact that TikTok has a creator account of its own on Instagram. The verified account, @tiktokcreators, has seemingly been around for a while considering the numbers: 398,000 followers and 657 posts.

Credit: Screenshot: Instagram / @tiktokcreators.

A few thoughts:

Using competitor apps to promote your own is either genius or just...confusing? And Instagram is still doing all it can to get us to start using Reels. Maybe Instagram knows, deep in its heart, that it's not winning the copycat war.