Instagram has confirmed to TechCrunch that it's working on a "Spins" feature for Reels, its short-form video TikTok clone. According to a screenshot first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, this feature would allow other users to substitute your text or audio in your Reels. According to Instagram, Spins is an internal prototype and isn't being tested externally.

This could be one way for users to launch trends in making templates that others can then spin their own ideas into. If there's a trending template that someone made, you would be able to swap the text or audio to change the meaning to fit another scenario. As a real example, consider taking a video of your dog yawning and attaching a caption to it- "Me on Monday mornings". Using the Spins feature, someone else can reshare the video but with something like "Me trying to stay awake in class".

As the screenshot shared by Paluzzi implies, creators would get credit for their original Reels with each and every user who creates a Spin of it, thereby reaching a more extensive audience. The screenshot also offers an implication that the toggle to turn on or off the feature on different Reels would be possible using the "Spins" toggle before publishing a Reel.

#Instagram is working on "Spins" for #Reels ????

ℹ️ Let people replace the text or audio in your Reel. For each spin appended, you will reach their audience. pic.twitter.com/W3DIgWAeuT

While its name might imply otherwise, Spins isn't a take on Reels' existing "Remix" feature-a copy of TikTok's duet feature that lets you appear in a video next to an original one side by side to offer commentary or reactions. Spins allows slightly more collaborative fun and creativity.

When available, this feature would only be accessible to users and viewers of Reels, differentiating it entirely from their siblings on TikTok. To date, since Reels is pretty much an exact copycat of TikTok in all senses, Spins would, for the first time, feature a tiny difference between the two products.

Like with every prototype from Instagram's in-house, it is not known whether Spins ever will make it to the public or if the company has any plan at launching this in the future, only time will tell.