Instagram says it wasn’t trying to block Reels exports and will fix sound issue

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It wasn't intentional to try to stop creators from filming in its app and exporting their videos to other platforms It was reported this week that sound was being stripped from video clips in order to save them, meaning you had to publish a reel in order to save it. Meta says that the issue will be fixed and that it was a bug.

Audio is missing in some downloads due to a bug, and we are working to fix it as soon as possible.

The fix will be important for creators who prefer to do their own work. You can use the download feature to add filters to footage that you plan to use in other apps.

While Meta intends to fix this bug, short-form video platforms are trying to get the attention of the public. YouTube Shorts now watermarks videos when they're exported, and it previously said it would reduce distribution of videos that originated on other platforms. It is only a matter of time before the TikTok features come back.