Instagram’s ‘First Draft’ wants to cut the boring part out of making Reels

Instagram says its new editing tool can hand you a rough cut of a Reel in under 10 seconds. That’s the pitch, and it’s aimed squarely at the part of video creation nobody enjoys: scrubbing through clips, hunting for the dead air, and cutting it out one pause at a time.

The company announced the feature, called “First Draft,” in a Threads post Tuesday. It automatically trims the video clips you select, strips out pauses and assembles what it considers the best moments into an initial cut.

What it actually does to your footage

You don’t start from a blank timeline anymore. You start from a draft the app built for you, then refine it.

That’s a meaningful difference for anyone who’s never opened a proper editor. Instagram’s framing is that the tool saves creators editing time and makes video creation more approachable for people without much experience in editing software.

First Draft is rolling out on iPhone first. You can reach it straight from Instagram’s camera while you’re recording, or from the Reels gallery once you’ve selected multiple clips.

The idea isn’t new. The placement is.

Automated cutting has been around. Adobe Firefly’s Quick Cuts does it. CapCut’s Auto Cut does it.

What’s different here is that Instagram built it into its own app, which removes one more reason to export your footage somewhere else and come back. That’s the real play, and it’s less about the technology than about keeping creators inside Instagram from record to publish.

It fits a pattern from the past year

Instagram has been steadily filling gaps in its creator toolkit. There’s a “Replace Audio” tool that swaps the music on existing feed posts and carousels without making you delete and re-upload the whole thing.

The company is also working on a new AI assistant for Edits, its video-editing app. And it’s been testing “Series,” which groups related Reels so viewers watch them in a set order, turning scattered short videos into something with more structure.

The timing is hard to ignore

First Draft was announced the same day Instagram head Adam Mosseri is expected to testify in Meta’s social media addiction trial.

The lawsuit accuses Meta of designing Instagram and Facebook in ways that encouraged children to use the platforms compulsively while failing to address potential harms. Meta has rejected the allegations.

If you’re on an iPhone and you’ve got a folder of clips you keep meaning to cut down, this is the feature to try first. Open the Reels gallery, select several clips at once, and see what the app hands back before you touch a single trim handle.