Edits, an Instagram app 4+

I rarely write reviews, but this app honestly deserves it. As someone who creates and posts content almost daily, I’ve gone through dozens of editing apps — most of them either limit you behind paywalls or hit you with ads every few minutes. This one is completely free, no subscriptions, no hidden upgrades, and somehow still offers better tools than most paid apps.

The UI is clean and easy to learn, and it doesn’t crash or lag when working with longer clips. The transitions are smooth, the text and sticker options are solid, and I was surprised by how good the color grading and filters are. Everything exports in high quality, and there are no watermarks, which is huge.

It’s rare to find something this useful with no strings attached. If you’re making content for Instagram, this app is a no-brainer.

Two stars for effort. As someone with 25 years in web and UI design and extensive experience with various editing apps, I was excited to try Instagram’s new ‘Edit’ app. It turned out to be a massive disappointment. The only slightly redeeming feature is easy access to Instagram music, but everything else falls flat. The app prioritizes pointless features like tracking ideas and inspiration—something nobody needs from a video editor—while completely neglecting essential tools like reversing clips or applying common filters, transitions, and effects. It claims to offer high-quality footage and 4K exports without watermarks, but that’s a bare minimum expectation. The core functionality is severely lacking; it feels like a rushed, underdeveloped product that’s nowhere near ready for prime time. If Instagram wants to compete with heavyweights like CapCut, they need to bring something innovative to the table. Right now, it’s just a half-baked imitation that fails to deliver anything new or worthwhile. If you’re serious about video editing, stick to what you know works. Instagram should focus on improving their main app and put developers’ time into fixing existing bugs instead of wasting resources on a half-hearted attempt to compete

I think the main benefit is that this app is free to use and doesn’t come with a boatload of costly add-ons to purchase, but it’s not a one stop shop for the way I edit. The ability to add actual music as you can in the app trending audio clips makes this app better than CapCut or most competitors. There’s plenty of simple filters but no effects option so you’ll still have to do that in-app. No option to do key framing and when you share to Instagram directly from the app, there’s no more options to edit, just to post. I find myself still having to use other apps to do my editing if I want to do key framing or I just download the video I’ve created and then edit it further in the Instagram app before posting. The app isn’t bad by any means, but it doesn’t reduce the creative process unless you’re editing simple videos to post. I’m sure there will be some further updates in the future that will close most gaps, but still worth using compared to creating a reel from beginning to end in the Instagram app.