For years, wannable stalkers and overenthusiastic video sharing nerds have relied on shady websites and bots to download Instagram Reels on their phones. Mark Zuckerberg has finally decided to end that trauma and has added a dedicated download button to the Instagram app.
Now, as soon as you tap that share button on a Reel, you will see a row of sharing options at the bottom, including the new down-arrow-shaped Download button. But the new local save option is not an unhinged tool for downloading whatever saucy Reel you like.
The download button will only be available for Reels shared by a public account. An account that has its status set to private will have the download button disabled by default. But there's always a chance that there's some wicked mind in your mutuals, even if the account is private.
To address that concern, Instagram will offer a dedicated option in the Settings section that will let users disable the download button in its entirety. Also, if you are into stealing content like a morally bankrupt social media ninja, there's some bad news.
All downloaded videos will have an Instagram watermark, alongside the original account's username. For now, this feature is only available to our American cousins. Unfortunately, we don't know if – or when – this download facility will go global. Cheers!