Key facts
- Instagram said the desktop Edits app includes licensed and royalty-free music, sound and video effects, and automatic captions in multiple languages.
- Saved audio and text styles sync from the mobile app to desktop, and creators can import font files and keyboard shortcuts.
- Creators can publish from the desktop editor to Instagram with tagging and location built in, the company said.
- Instagram said Edits supports horizontal and vertical video with watermark-free 4K exports.
- Brett Westervelt, head of Edits, said creators described projects getting too big for a phone.
- Instagram said it plans weekly updates and is working on editing one project across desktop and mobile.
Instagram announced on November 5, 2026 that Edits, its short-form video editing app, is available on desktop for Mac. The company said the desktop version is built for more complex projects that benefit from a larger screen, mouse and keyboard.
The desktop app includes licensed and royalty-free music, sound and video effects, and automatic captions in multiple languages, Instagram said. Audio and text styles saved on the mobile app sync to the desktop app, and users can customize keyboard shortcuts or import them from other editing software. Instagram said the editor also has a full multi-track timeline, keyframes for transitions and audio waveforms for accurate cuts, and creators can import their own font files.
Creators can publish from the desktop editor directly to Instagram with native tagging and location features, which Instagram said removes the need to edit on desktop, download the file, move it to mobile and make more edits before posting. Edits supports horizontal and vertical video formats with watermark-free exports in 4K resolution, the company said.
Brett Westervelt, head of Edits, said in a blog post: "A lot of creators have described the same moment to us: a project gets too big for your phone." He said the company is expanding Edits to take on more ambitious projects on desktop.
Instagram said it plans to ship weekly updates to the desktop editor and is working to let creators edit one project across desktop and mobile seamlessly. The company also said it will continue to grow the mobile Edits app for the more than 50 million creators who use it.
The desktop release puts Edits in more direct competition with ByteDance's CapCut, the editing app Meta sought to challenge when it launched Edits in 2025. CapCut has been available on desktop for Windows and Mac since 2021.