✂️ Instagram will now rough-cut your Reels in one tap — I ran 3 tests so you don't have to

Welcome back to TWISM!

Be honest: how many minutes of footage are sitting in your camera roll right now because editing them feels like a second job?

Instagram just made a play for that footage. On Aug 25, IG launched First Draft — select your clips, tap one button, and it hands back a rough-cut Reel. Instagram says the whole thing takes under ten seconds, and it's iPhone-only for now with no Android timeline (TechCrunch).

But does it solve the "tedious and frustrating" process of manual trimming?

I ran it through three tests to find out... with very different kinds of footage, from the easiest case to the one that breaks it.

Hint: it legitimately could save you hours, but it's far from perfect. 👇

Together with Sked Social

The industry's biggest social media reality check is here.

We're building the State of Social Report 2026, and we need people in the trenches.

What's working, what's broken, what nobody talks about.

Your answers stay anonymous. The insights get shared with everyone. And you could walk away with a $250 gift card.

Take the Survey →

🥾 Test 1: Five hiking clips — First Draft's best case

I fed it 5 videos from a hike — 7 min 38 sec total, mostly scenic B-roll with some spoken commentary mixed in.

Processing took ~20 secs.

What came back: dozens of clips, 1-5 secs each, totaling 2 min and 16 secs for me to review.

So First Draft didn't finish the edit for me. It sorted through my footage and picked out the moments worth keeping. (Still a win!) 🤯

Instagram's own press demo compressed ~5 min of footage into a 17-sec Reel — a ~94% cut (Mashable). Mine was ~70%.

Then I spent ~5 min deleting filler — roughly half the clips — and ended with a ~1-min Reel.

Total time: about 5 minutes. By hand, that edit would've cost me 45-60 min (I'm not a pro video editor). It also felt faster than my runs with Descript or OpusClip.

💎 The pleasant surprise: it found and kept the funny commentary buried inside the scenery — the exact thing I assumed it would miss.

⚠️ The gripe: I couldn't find a bulk delete, so I spent those 5 minutes deleting clips individually.

—

🎙️ Test 2: A talking head vid — the cuts land mid-word

Next I filmed myself talking straight to the camera inside Instagram (the camera path) and ran it through.

The cuts kept landing a fraction of a second early — mid-word — clipping me off. On scenic b-roll vids, you'd never notice. On a talking head, the cut point can ruin the content.

Verdict: usable. But this is not what it's good at.

I'm not the only one with this problem. PetaPixel caught Instagram's own promo demo cutting a quad skater right before the tricks and called the result "totally unusable" (PetaPixel). It seems to pick moments, even if it doesn't understand them.

The good news: the Audio/music button sits right on the first-draft screen, and reordering clips by hold-and-drag is easy.

—

🛑 Test 3: One raw 7-minute take — where it breaks

Lastly, I tested footage most of you probably have: a single 7 min 12 sec raw, unedited talking-head vid with normal pauses, false starts, and gaffes.

Processing took 10-15 seconds. One long video processed faster than five separate clips.

Output: 44 seconds — a ~90% cut — and... totally unusable.

Why? It can't tell a good take from a bad one. It just trims down whatever you give it. Bad footage in = a tight edit of bad footage out.

—

📏 The rule: garbage in, garbage cut

First Draft is exactly as good as what you feed it.

✅ Feed it: multi-clip B-roll or long-form vids you've already trimmed are the sweet spot (Business Standard).

🛑 Don't feed it: raw, unedited long-form (especially a single talking-head take).

My honest verdict: It's nowhere near a pro editor. But it got me, a non-editor, a decent Reel in 5 minutes — and for most people, the realistic alternative would have been not posting at all.

—

📲 How to run it (iPhone only)

You have 2 ways to use it (Instagram Help Center):

1. Gallery: Create → Reel → select clips → Next → First draft

2. Camera: Create → Reel → Camera → record → Next → First draft

On the First Draft screen:

• Reorder: hold and drag a clip

• Delete: tap a clip → Delete

• Music: tap "Add music"

• Skip it: choose Skip First Draft

• Go deeper: voiceover and captions live one level deeper in the full editor

—

🧲 Instagram wants the edit to stay on Instagram

Instagram already has a standalone editing app in Edits, yet First Draft landed inside the main Instagram app's Reels creation flow. That placement fits Instagram's push toward native video, rather than content edited elsewhere and imported back in (Tubefilter).

Instagram gives free clip selection, so users have one less reason to open CapCut.

☝️ The one-sentence version

First Draft finds your best clips, it doesn't edit them — so feed it multi-clip B-roll or long-form you've already cleaned up, spend 5 min deleting the filler, and post the Reel that's been rotting in your camera roll while everyone else waits for the Android version.

Hit reply and tell me: what are your first thoughts on First Draft?

—

📚 Sources

• TechCrunch — Instagram's First Draft feature aims to make editing Reels less tedious

• Instagram Help Center — Use First Draft to edit your Reel

• Mashable — Instagram's First Draft feature edits Reels for you

• PetaPixel — Instagram's new video editing tool quickly makes a first draft

• Business Standard — Instagram First Draft Reels editing feature (iPhone)

• Tubefilter — Instagram's First Draft editing feature for Reels

That’s all for today. Thanks for reading. Now…

Go BIG or go home!

~ Josh from “This Week in Social Media”

Disclaimer: Some links may be affiliate links that pay us commissions.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you?

Subscribe to “This Week in Social Media” here »