Just as the United States’ ban on TikTok was enforced on Sunday.
In an announcement video, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram at social media company Meta, announced the brand’s newest offshoot.
“Today, we are announcing Edits, a brand new app for editing videos on your phone,” he opened the clip.
Mosseri also recognized the ongoing issues at TikTok, which went briefly went dark in the United States on Sunday, January 19, as a ban took effect.
“Now, there’s a lot going right now and no matter what happens, we think it’s our job to create the most-compelling creative tools for those of you who make videos for not just Instagram, but [also other] platforms out there, as we can,” he said.
The Meta official also teased the service to not just be an “editing tool, but an entire, full suite of creative tools,” and noted that the app will be oriented toward people editing of shortform videos using their mobile devices.
Edits is now available to “pre-order” for free in the Apple App Store, and will soon be on Google Play Store as well for Android users.
It will be officially go online starting February 2025, Moserri said.
The launch of the new app is also an attempt to fill the void supposedly to be left by CapCut, another app owned by TikTok’s parent ByteDance, which also suspended its service in the United States amid the kerfuffle.
Aside from Edits, Instagram had also been used by Meta as launchpad for its other services like ‘Reels,’ ‘Story,’ and most-recently, the text-based app ‘Threads’ — which debuted in response X, formerly Twitter, in July 2023.