Instagram is expanding what creators can do inside Edits, its dedicated content creation app, with a new set of tools for building carousel posts.
The update allows creators to combine photos and videos, customise layouts and apply creative elements such as fonts, text styles, overlays, effects and stickers. Edits was initially positioned heavily around short-form video, but the latest update shows Meta pushing the app toward a wider role in Instagram content production.
For creators who regularly switch between several editing apps, that could make the workflow considerably simpler.
Instagram Edits Expands Into Carousel Creation
The addition of carousel editing gives Edits a bigger role in the way creators prepare Instagram posts. Users can now work with photos and videos in the same project while applying different layouts and visual treatments before publishing.
Creators can also use fonts and text styles already available in Edits, along with overlays, effects and stickers created from cutout elements. This gives a carousel more room for visual storytelling instead of treating each slide as a basic photo.
The change is particularly useful for creators producing educational posts, product content, photo stories and other formats where several pieces of media need to work together.
Creators Can Combine Photos and Videos in One Carousel
The ability to mix photos and video clips gives creators more flexibility when building a carousel. A single post can move from still images to short video moments and then back to graphics or photographs without requiring the creator to assemble everything in another application.
That matters because Instagram carousels have evolved well beyond collections of photographs. Creators now use them for tutorials, behind-the-scenes content, product showcases, commentary, travel stories and visual explainers.
Edits gives users more control over how those individual pieces fit together before the carousel reaches Instagram.
New Layouts Give Carousel Posts More Creative Control
Edits also brings additional design controls into the carousel workflow, including different layouts and the ability to customise the visual presentation of individual pieces of content.
Text can be integrated into the design through Edits’ fonts and text styles, while overlays and effects can add another layer to images and videos. Creators can also turn cutout elements into stickers and use them within their designs.
The result is a carousel that can feel more deliberately designed rather than simply assembled from a camera roll.
Instagram Continues to Invest in the Carousel Format
Instagram’s continued investment in carousels reflects the format’s importance to creators and brands. Unlike a single-image post, a carousel gives users several pieces of content to interact with inside one post.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has previously explained that carousels can generate additional opportunities for engagement because users can swipe through multiple pieces of media. Instagram can also give a carousel another chance to appear in someone’s feed by showing a different slide when the person does not initially swipe through the post.
That makes the format useful for creators trying to hold attention beyond the first image.
Edits Is Moving Beyond Its Original Video Focus
The carousel update also shows how Meta is gradually broadening the purpose of Edits. The app launched with a strong emphasis on mobile video creation, giving creators tools for editing clips, adding effects, working with audio and preparing content for social platforms.
Meta has continued adding features since launch, including more advanced editing controls and creative tools based on feedback from creators.
Adding carousel creation pushes Edits further toward becoming a general-purpose content production app rather than a tool that creators open only when they need to edit a Reel.
Edits Could Reduce the Number of Apps Creators Need
For many creators, producing one Instagram post can involve several different applications. A video might be edited in one app, photographs adjusted in another and carousel graphics created somewhere else before everything is finally uploaded to Instagram.
Edits is increasingly trying to bring those steps together.
A creator can now work with photographs and video, add text and effects, create stickers and arrange the material into a carousel without leaving the Edits environment. It may not eliminate every external editing tool, but it gives creators another reason to keep more of their production process inside Meta’s ecosystem.
That is an important part of the strategy.
Carousel Tools Strengthen Meta’s Creator Ecosystem
Meta has been steadily building Edits into a larger part of its creator ecosystem. The company has described the app as a place where creators can develop ideas, produce content and manage the creative process from start to finish.
The addition of carousel editing fits that direction. Instagram is no longer asking creators to think only in terms of Reels and short videos. Photos, carousels, graphics and mixed-media posts remain important parts of the platform.
By giving creators tools for more of those formats, Meta can make Edits more useful across the entire content cycle.
The New Carousel Features Start With iOS
The new carousel editing functionality is being introduced first to iOS users, while Android support is expected to follow.
That gives iPhone users an early opportunity to test the expanded workflow and create carousels directly within Edits. Android creators will need to wait for the feature to reach their version of the app.
The broader Android rollout will be significant because Instagram’s creator base spans a wide range of devices and markets.
Instagram Wants Edits to Become a Daily Creator Tool
The bigger picture is fairly clear: Meta wants Edits to become something creators use regularly, not just another video editor sitting on their phones.
Adding carousel creation helps move the app in that direction. A creator might open Edits to develop an idea, edit a Reel one day and build a photo-and-video carousel the next.
That wider usefulness could be what ultimately determines whether Edits becomes a core part of Instagram’s creator workflow.
For Meta, getting creators to stay inside its own creative tools is the real win.
Sources
- Social Media Today — Edits App Gets Carousel Editing Tools
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/edits-app-gets-carousel-editing-tools/832448/ - Meta — One Year of Edits: Built for and With Creators
https://about.fb.com/news/2026/04/one-year-of-edits-built-for-and-with-creators/ - Instagram — Edits
https://www.instagram.com/edits/
