With all the attention to the newly debuted Instagram Reels from Facebook and the hilarious, bizarre world of TikTok, here’s a first impression on the two platforms and how they compare from a designer’s perspective.

所有人都在关注Facebook新近推出的Instagram卷轴，以及TikTok有趣而奇异的世界，这是这两个平台的第一印象，以及它们从设计师的角度进行比较的方式。

Disclaimer: I’m no longer a teenager, which probably places me out of the target audience for this type of app. The concept of mindless scroll feeds filled with short looping videos make me feel ancient (as I can still remember Vine’s untimely death) and behind on the times. Nevertheless, I wanted to document my first impressions trying their respective experiences.

免责声明：我不再是青少年，这可能使我无法进入此类应用的目标受众群体。 漫不经心的滚动进纸的概念充满了短循环的视频，使我感到古老(因为我仍然记得Vine的过早死亡)和时代的落后。 不过，我想记录下我的第一印象，尝试他们各自的经历。

Let’s see how they compare:

让我们看看他们如何比较：

卷轴上的亮点 (Highlights on Reels)

As video editing is a challenge even on computer where there’s a lot more space, both TikTok and Instagram probably could find ways to make it easier to edit videos easily swipes/taps on mobile.

由于即使在空间更大的计算机上，视频编辑也是一个挑战，因此TikTok和Instagram都可能会找到方法，使在移动设备上轻松滑动/轻按即可轻松编辑视频。

Here’s some things that work well:

以下是一些行之有效的方法：

• Simple video creation options (effects gallery with a large amount of examples, straightforward music library, lyrics scrubbing feature)
  简单的视频创建选项(带有大量示例的效果库，简单的音乐库，歌词清理功能)
• Convenient to use if you’re an existing Instagram user
  如果您是现有的Instagram用户，使用方便

^These were all things that made it easier for me as a new user to create a post in a short amount of time on Reels.

^所有这些使我作为新用户更容易在短时间内在Reels上创建帖子。

The name of the product also made more sense in relation to how it works — I don’t understand what the term “TikTok” is meant to convey but a “Reel” sounds similar to a movie reel or a compilation of clips.

产品的名称在工作方式上也更有意义-我不明白“ TikTok”一词的含义是什么，但是“ Reel”听起来像电影卷轴或剪辑片段。

Room for improvement:

改进空间：

The signup process for Instagram, which is required for Reels led me to a wall of cards with steps to complete: adding my contacts, following accounts and so forth whereas for TikTok I could watch videos without even installing an app from their website. Instagram (web) has more of a feeling of a gated community where login is prompted after a few scrolls whether for photos or videos (Note: Reels are currently not shown on web, not sure why).

Instagram注册过程是Reels所必需的，这使我陷入了一堵墙，其中需要完成一些步骤：添加我的联系人，跟踪帐户等，而对于TikTok，我什至可以观看视频，甚至无需从其网站上安装应用。 Instagram(网络)更像是一个封闭的社区，在滚动几张照片或视频后提示登录，提示登录(注意：卷轴当前未显示在网络上，不确定为什么)。

TikTok的亮点 (Highlights on TikTok)

Here’s some things that work well:

以下是一些行之有效的方法：

• Low barrier entry point
  低障碍进入点
• Discovery of new content (even educational content) outside of who I follow
  在我关注的人之外发现新内容(甚至是教育内容)
• Features for encouraging interactions between users
  鼓励用户之间互动的功能

For TikTok, it took less than 2 minutes to finding something fun without even going through a signup process. Initially, I went into both platforms with low expectations on the content. My first recommended videos from Reels were animal videos which were okay albeit nothing vastly different than what I’ve seen from any other platforms (ex. Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Pinterest etc.).

对于TikTok来说，花了不到2分钟的时间才找到有趣的东西，甚至没有经过注册过程 。 最初，我进入这两个平台时对内容的期望不高。 我最初推荐的Reels视频是动物视频，虽然与我在其他任何平台(例如Reddit，Facebook，YouTube，Tumblr，Pinterest等)上看到的视频都没有很大不同，但它们还是可以的。

While casually browsing TikTok, I quickly found content I enjoyed from well-known public figures (ex. Bill Nye) which was an unexpected surprise, along with some unique recipe videos for trendy food.

在随意浏览TikTok时，我很快发现了我从著名的公众人物(例如Bill Nye)中获得的内容，这是一个意想不到的惊喜，还有一些关于时尚食品的独特食谱视频。

There was a surprising amount of educational content from doctors, teachers and other professional experts, though it’s questionable how trustworthy the content actually is.

来自医生，教师和其他专业专家的教育内容令人惊讶，尽管该内容实际上有多可靠值得怀疑。

Each trend under the “Discover” tab seems to have the potential to bring together a new community of users around a shared interest sort of like a shared Pinterest board on steroids.

“发现”选项卡下的每种趋势似乎都有可能围绕共同的兴趣将新的用户群体聚集在一起，就像类固醇的共享Pinterest板一样。

I saw fun ways to encourage interactions/collaborations between users:

我看到了一些有趣的方法来鼓励用户之间的交互/协作：

1. Duet — gives the ability to allow users to create content featuring an initial video, with both videos appearing side by side on the screen. Makes sense given the parent company ByteDance merged the popular lip-syncing app Musical.ly into TikTok.

   Duet —使用户能够创建包含初始视频的内容，并且两个视频并排出现在屏幕上。 考虑到母公司ByteDance将流行的口型同步应用Musical.ly合并到TikTok中，这是有道理的 。

2. React — gives the ability for users to react to video with a self-recording. This seems to be a popular existing format similar to the Reaction videos from YouTube but makes it even easier for users to replicate this format.

   React —使用户能够通过自我录制对视频做出React。 这似乎是一种流行的现有格式，类似于YouTube上的“ React”视频，但使用户更容易复制此格式。

Room for improvement:I was confused navigating TikTok’s vast amount of video creation options, given the numerous effects and actions (trim/cut/split, transitions, sound/filters/text, durations, etc.) for video editing. It felt overwhelming to figure out how things worked as a beginner.

改进的空间：考虑到用于视频编辑的众多效果和动作(修剪/剪切/分割，过渡，声音/滤镜/文本，持续时间等)，我对TikTok的大量视频创建选项感到困惑。 弄清楚初学者是如何工作的，这让人感到不知所措。

That said, the beauty of customization options is that it output can be really creative and high quality for the users that are dedicated to use these tools well. The “For You” tab showed some unique types of video cuts that which made me want to learn how to further improve my editing skills.

就是说，自定义选项的优点在于，对于致力于使用这些工具的用户而言，它的输出可以真正具有创意和高质量。 “为您”选项卡显示了一些独特的视频剪辑类型，这使我想学习如何进一步提高编辑技能。

结论 (Conclusion)

On Instagram, there’s stigma of people posting “perfect realities”, whereas I can sense the appeal of a less filtered version from the videos on TikTok which even has the tagline “Real People. Real Videos” on its site. Since Instagram’s app already has both photos, Stories (short form videos which disappears after 24 hours) and IGTV (long form videos), adding Reels is another addition for users to contend with. Instagram has a rap for pushing more sponsored posts and content but that may be only a matter of time for any platform with a large audience.

在Instagram上，有人在张贴“完美的现实”的污名，而我可以从TikTok上的视频中感觉到过滤程度较低的版本的吸引力，甚至还有标语“真实的人”。 真实视频”。 由于Instagram应用程序已经包含照片，故事(简短视频(在24小时后消失)和IGTV(长视频))，因此添加Reels是用户需要应对的另一项内容。 Instagram有一个说唱来推动更多赞助的帖子和内容，但这对于拥有大量观众的任何平台来说只是时间问题。

If you already use Instagram, it’s easy to switch over and browse Reels as you would a Story from people you follow, making it familiar but definitely not the wild, unexpected world of the trending music/hashtags like TikTok.

如果您已经使用过Instagram，则可以轻松地切换和浏览Reels，就像从您追随的人那里获得一个故事一样，使其熟悉，但绝对不是像TikTok这样的流行音乐/标签的狂野，意想不到的世界。

For the video create workflow, I can definitely see a strong resemblance between the two apps. Both platforms are similar in how users capture short snippets of video, layer on music/filters and final edits before posting.

对于视频创建工作流程，我绝对可以看到两个应用程序之间的强烈相似之处。 两种平台在用户捕获短视频片段，在音乐/过滤器上分层以及在发布之前进行最终编辑的方式类似。

Quality content and authentic engagements matters most for healthy social media platforms. This is where I see TikTok having an advantage for being more “real” and refreshing in terms of the content created, whether prompted from hashtags or their community.

对于健康的社交媒体平台而言，高质量的内容和可靠的参与最为重要。 在这里，我看到TikTok的优势在于，无论是从主题标签还是从其社区获得提示，TikTok的内容都更加“真实”并令人耳目一新。

Both platforms probably can fulfill their audience’s need for something to do given quarantine boredom. The ways they differ in how to incentive creators while also generating authentic interactions between creators/followers and the wider community will make this battle interesting to observe in the future.

鉴于隔离无聊，这两个平台可能都能满足受众的需求。 他们在激励创作者的方式上有所不同，同时在创作者/追随者与更广泛的社区之间产生真实的互动，这将使这场战斗在未来变得有趣起来。