Reels are all the rage these days and everyone is looking for the best and easiest way to edit an Insta Reel. And the internet is flooded with tons of third-party apps to edit reels on your smartphone. And learning a new app after installing it can be really frustrating sometimes. How about we tell you that you can edit your reels right in the Instagram app without having to use a third-party editor?

Don’t be surprised because Instagram has introduced a new Reel Editor in the app itself. Read on, and we’ll show you how to edit a reel in the Instagram app using the new reel editor. Let’s take a look at how you can use it and step up your social media game.

How to Edit an Instagram Reel Without Third-Party App

On Instagram, you can mainly edit two things in a reel. The main thing you can edit in a reel is the media content, which we will focus on in this article. You can only edit the main content of a reel before you post it to the feed. Once it’s published, you can only edit the caption, tags, comments, etc., on Instagram. To better understand how to edit an Instagram reel in the native app itself, we will split this article into 11 parts. Let us start.

Edit a Reel in the Instagram Editor (Before Posting)

Instagram’s newly launched reel editor is a versatile tool for editing reels on the go. The previous editor was just good enough, as it did not allow you to play with clips in a timeline format. With Instagram’s new reel editor, you can perform various actions while editing from one place, which was not possible before. Some of them include trimming clips, adding transitions between clips, adding music, text, etc. Open the Instagram app on your smartphone and learn how to edit a reel in Instagram’s new reel editor.

Get Started (Add a Clip)

Before we move on to the tutorial for advanced editors, let us first take a look at how to launch Instagram’s new Reel Editor on your smartphone. Launching the new Reel Editor on Instagram is an effortless process, here are the steps to do so.

1. Open the Instagram app and tap the + (Add New) button to get started.

2. Select REEL from the available options and then tap the Add Media button.

3. Tap a video to import it.

4. Now tap Add.

5. Tap Next to proceed further.

6. Now just tap Edit Video to open the new Instagram reel editor.

Add More Clips

If you want to add more clips to your posts, you can do so with the new Instagram editor, as a single clip is usually not enough to create engaging content. Here are the simple steps you need to follow.

1. To add more clips to the timeline tap the Add Clips button.

2. Tap a video to import it to the Timeline.

Reorder Clips

After uploading multiple clips to your timeline, you may want to rearrange them. With Instagram’s new editor, you can easily rearrange the clips in your timeline. Let us take a look at the steps involved.

1. In the Reel Editor, tap the Reorder button in the lower left corner of the screen.

2. Now press and hold a clip and drag it to the desired location.

3. When you are done rearranging, tap Done. Now you can see the rearranged clips in the Timeline.

Trim the Length of the Clips

In the new reel editor, you can now trim the length of clips. This is very helpful to adjust the length of the clip to the music you want to use.

1. In the editor, first scroll to the clip you want to trim and then tap it to select it.

2.  Two handles appear at the beginning and end of the clip. Drag the handle to trim the video to your liking.

3. When you are done trimming the clips, tap the Back button in the lower-left corner of the editor to go back.

Add a Transition Between Clips

With the new Reel Editor, you can easily add a transition between clips. Moreover, you can also add a transition and apply it to all clips in the timeline. Let us take a look at the steps you need to take to do this.

1. In the Reel Editor, tap the white handle between the clips to which you want to add a transition.

2. Scroll and select a transition to your liking.

3. When you are satisfied with the selected transition, tap Done. If you want to add the same transition to all the clips in the Timeline, tap Apply to All in the lower-left corner of the screen.

Add Music

Adding music to your Insta reel is a snap with the new editing module. You can add sound effects, songs, or even your saved music from the new editor. Here are the steps to do so.

1. Go to the Timeline and tap Add audio just below the clips you’ve added.

2. The Explore Instagram Music page will open. Tap on a song to add it to the timeline. Right now, we’re tapping on Saved Music for illustration purposes.

3. Tap a song to select it.

4. Tap Done to add the song to the timeline.

After adding a song to the reel, you can further edit it in the timeline itself. And here are the simple steps to follow

5. Tap the music to select it.

6. Now tap Adjust or Replace to edit the music according to your taste.

Also Read: How to Download Instagram Reels Audio as MP3

Add Texts

The new editor also lets you add text to your Insta reels to make them more appealing. Here are the simple steps to add text with the new Instagram reel editor.

1. Tap the Text button in the reel editor to add text to your reel.

2. Enter the text you want to add to your reel and then tap Done.

3. Tap Done again to add the text to the reel.

Fun Fact: You can drag the text layer handles to lengthen or shorten the duration of the text.

Add Text-to-Speech

Once you have added text to your reels, you can also add text-to-speech (also known as Siri or Assistant Voice) to your reels via the Movie Reel Editor. Adding text-to-speech to your reels can serve as a voiceover if you do not want to record your own voice.

1. Tap a text layer in the editor to select it.

2. Now click the Text-to-Speech option.

3. Select a voice and then tap Done. Now when you play the clip, you can hear the audio along with the text.

Add a Sticker

If you like adding stickers to your reels, you can now do that directly in the timeline of the new Insta reel editor. Let us take a look at the simple steps to do so.

1. Once you are in the reel editor tap on the Stickers option.

2. Tap on a sticker to add it to the clip.

3. Tap Done.

4. Tap Done again to add the sticker.

Preview Your Reel

To preview your edited reel, just swipe down from the arrow and the reel will be displayed in full-screen mode.

Add Effects

Last but not least, you can also add different types of effects to your reels. I’ll show you the steps to add an effect to your reel.

1. Once you are in preview mode, tap on the Effects option.

2. Scroll and tap to select an effect. We’ll choose an effect from the saved collection for illustration purposes.

3. Tap the effect to apply it to your final reel.

4. Now tap on Next to proceed to the publishing page for uploading it to your feed.

Edit Reels Like a Pro

Instagram’s previous editor was a disaster, but now there’s finally a good enough reel editor to be worth checking out. If you take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the new editor, you can create an appealing reel using your smartphone. So let your creativity run wild and use these tools to create an impressive video using the Instagram app and your smartphone.

Want to know how to download a Reel? Here are the 4 Best Methods for Instagram Reels Video Download.