Instagram could pay you to use its Reels app

Last fall, Instagram announced the launch of its short-form video platform called Reels—TikTok’s unofficial rival. The app allows you to easily record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, special effects, and plenty of creative tools. By allowing public accounts to share “reels” to the wider Instagram community through a new Explore space, Instagram has seen some significant growth in its diversity and creativity lately.

Now, it seems Reels is about to go all out in an effort to catch up with (or beat out) TikTok, as it is about to implement a new strategy for expanding its user base.

Alessandro Paluzzi, an avid Android and iOS developer, was digging around in some back-end code when he stumbled upon a never-before-seen announcement screen. This screen reveals that Instagram is planning to begin offering monetary bonuses to Reels users to get more people excited about the platform.

In order to participate in the mysterious bonus program, Instagram users will reportedly be asked to share their favorite Reels and spread the word. They’d most likely have to hit certain milestones before they can cash their earnings, but any further criteria have been undisclosed as of yet.

Instagram’s cash payout game plan is by no means a novel strategy in the social media app business, and Reels is far from the first to implement it. Late last year, Snapchat began offering $1M per day in rewards for the most entertaining clips shared on the platform. And they were quite successful.

Then just this month, YouTube announced its “Shorts Fund,” a prize pool of $100M distributed to YouTube Shorts creators over the course of 2021-2022.

Instagram has kept mum about Paluzzi’s discovery so far, but they’ll be sure to announce their plan for the secretive “bonus program” when they are closer to the launch date and ready to let the world know.