Facebook Reels: Meta adding video sharing ability from third-party apps

Meta has announced to introduce ‘Sharing to Reels” integration to add the ability to post Facebook Reels from third-party apps.

The integration will allow developers to make it easy for people to share videos from their apps directly to Facebook, Tech Crunch reported.

Meta’s director of product management John McCarthy said in a blog post, “Once integrated, third-party apps will have a Reels button so people can share short videos, then customize with Reels editing tools like audio, text, effects, captions and stickers.”

“Instead of downloading their video content and uploading it later, they can now create and share video seamlessly with one tap of a button.”

The company highlighted that several of its partners including Smule, Vita and VivaVideo have already integrated the “Sharing to Reels” button in their apps as part of the launch.

Developers who are interested in integrating the button in their apps can learn more about doing so on Meta’s developer website.

The company says the new feature will help people reach new audiences on Facebook and builds on its “Sharing to Stories” feature, which allows developers to enable their users to share content to Facebook Stories directly from third-party apps.

The announcement was made on Tuesday as Facebook recently rolled out Reels worldwide after publicly launching in the US last September.

Alongside the global rollout, Facebook also introduced more creative tools and new ways for creators to make money from their Reels through advertising, and soon, Stars.

While Reels first began as a way to directly combat TikTok with a feature inside the Instagram app, Meta also brought them to Facebook shortly after.

The company touted during its Q4 2021 earnings that Reels is now its “fastest-growing content format by far.” The company also said Reels was the biggest contributor to growth on Instagram and “growing very quickly” on Facebook, too.

Reels is one of the largest product investments at Meta, which has publicly discussed the threat posed by TikTok.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called TikTok a big competitor that’s growing at “quite a fast rate off of a very large base.”

It’s clear that Meta sees its new integration with third-party apps as a way to increase the popularity and reach of Facebook Reels, as it continues to compete with TikTok.