# Instagram Reels

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Instagram Reels and 22 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend Reels for surfacing similar content from different creators and for keeping pace with TikTok. The most common caveat is that it is highly addictive and eats time.

## Why people recommend it

- Surfaces similar content from other users (1 comments): "it is able to surface similar content I would like but from different users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46460467))
- Competitive with TikTok on content (1 comments): "Reels now is at least competitive in terms of content" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46780215))
- Instagram adapted well to short video (1 comments): "IMO IG has adapted far better to the new era" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49948920))
- Doing pretty well lately (1 comments): "reels is probably doing pretty well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47387970))

## What people warn about

- Addictive and hard to stop (7 comments): "Instead of messing around doing random things, a couple of them would just open up Instagram reels and bam, afternoon wasted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46625765)) "is ultimately too consuming literally a drug that robs one of the ability to concentrate and patience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47116721)) "Shorts, Reels, and whatever else with those mechanics precisely because they pull you in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789505))
- Engagement-driven, targets teens (3 comments): "both of which are aggressively incented to "engage" a user in ways they may not have preferred" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47118294)) "They are deliberately targeting teens and it's quite sickening." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199731)) "They need every single drop of your attention on adverts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48637591))
- Copies TikTok, mostly low-quality slop (3 comments): "tikok/YT shorts/IG reels is many orders of magnitude higher supply of slop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46388057)) "Instagram Reels is just a TikTok rip off. It's not 'new'." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48775583)) "Reels is just AI and engagement slop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46782750))
- Harmful content despite not interested (2 comments): "You can click infinite times not interested on dangerous or adult reels and they'll just show up more and more." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47518719)) "how destructive some of Meta's content, especially Reels, can be" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49220960))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.instagram.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Instagram Reels", https://hackerapproved.com/p/instagram-reels/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).