There are two places one can become a unicorn, an alien, or a cowboy . Also in which you can have one, two, three or even dozens of clones. And in which it is possible to be a magician without spending little time learning the tricks. One is TikTok, the Chinese social network that was born in 2016 and is already present on more than 2 billion phones around the world. The other is Reels, a new Instagram feature launched in early August after US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the US Both platforms are designed to create and discover short and entertaining videos. But which of the two is better? EL PAÍS has put them to the test and TikTok is the winner.
The president of the United States announced the intention to ban the social network in the country on suspicion that it is a tool of espionage of China. (Atlas)
Both alternatives are free and can be used to record and edit short videos with music, voice clips and effects. Reels is a feature within Instagram while TikTok is an application unto itself. And you can see it. In general, creating or discovering videos is simpler and more intuitive on TikTok than on Instagram, since it is designed exclusively for it. Reels tries to imitate the Chinese application but sometimes it gives the feeling of creating stories (short videos or photographs that are automatically deleted after 24 hours) with some added effects.
Discover videos
Discovering videos of users who are not followed is easier on TikTok, since it is an application designed for it. In fact, all you have to do is open the app for a video to start playing. Then you just have to slide your finger slightly upwards so that new videos are shown. It is "for you", a feed that uses an algorithm to display creations that are tailored to the user's interests. The company ensures that neither the number of followers nor the visits of the videos are considered decisive factors to recommend them to other users. It also includes a tab that allows you to view only the videos of the people you follow and another that allows you to explore all kinds of trends.
On Instagram, finding the reels of users you don't follow is one more function. To do this, click on the "explore" tab. Currently, Instagram highlights the reels as soon as you enter it. Switching from one to the other is identical to doing it on TikTok: you just have to swipe up. In addition, Instagram also allows you to check the reels of the users that you follow on Instagram by accessing their feed . That is, on the screen that users see when entering a specific profile.
Create Videos
Reels allow you to create videos of up to 15 seconds. TikTok, from three to 60 seconds. Some video editing tools that both platforms have are very similar. For example, they allow you to speed up or slow down part of the selected video or audio, use a timer to record any of the clips hands-free, superimpose texts or add songs to them. Reels have a useful tool for aligning a clip with the previous one. When pressed, the last frame of the previous clip is superimposed on the camera image.
Overall, the effects of TikTok are more amazing than those of Reels. Many times it seems that the latter have been designed for stories . In addition, Reels is missing some of the star features of TikTok. One of them is to make duets, which allows you to use some videos already published to add another recording along with them. In this way it is possible to create a new video in a split screen format and, for example, sing or dance with a famous person or any other user.
In addition, TikTok offers more functions when creating videos with previously recorded content. With them, it is possible to significantly accelerate the assembly process and also more achieved results. For example, the Chinese application performs an automatic trimming of different clips, recommends different songs based on the chosen videos and cuts and orders them so that the transitions occur to the rhythm of the music.
Download and share creations
When publishing a creation, TikTok allows you to choose whether to make it public to everyone or just to friends. On many occasions, TikToks go viral because they can be easily downloaded and shared on all platforms: from WhatsApp to Instagram via Facebook or Twitter. In fact, multiple users share their creations in the Chinese app on Instagram stories . Of course, the videos are downloaded with a TikTok watermark and the user's name. One of the great disadvantages of Instagram is that, at the moment, when you download a reel with a song on your smartphone , the music is automatically deleted. The result? A funny video (or not) without sound.
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