Instagram Edits looks to capitalise on CapCut uncertainty

US uncertainty about what apps are banned now, what might be banned in the future, and what is absolutely fine has reached quite a way beyond just TikTok as CapCut also went dark yesterday.

The great TikTok Ban of 2025 only lasted a few hours but it was enough to shake up a whole load of adjacent apps and industries around it. Its current status is up and running again, with incoming President Trump stating that he will issue an executive order today giving the company another 90 days to be sold. 

He also said there will be no liability for companies supporting it in that time period. Some have chosen to take him at his word, notably hosting provider, Oracle, and CDN partner, Akamai, who are behind the restoration of the service. Apple and Google have yet to put it back into their app stores, however, suggesting there is still some Big Tech nervousness about some of the legal implications of all this. 

While all that plays out, there were also a surprising number of other apps associated with TikTok parent Bytedance that went offline in the US too. The popular Marvel Snap game went dark along with other titles published by Nuverse, which ByteDance owns. And the free online video editing tool CapCut fell off the web too, leaving a gap that Meta-owned Instagram was quick to drive into with a new app called Edits.

Announcing the new app in (what else) an Insta post, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that, “Edits is more than a video editing app; it’s a full suite of creative tools. There will be a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (which I used to record this video), all the editing tools you’d expect, the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and — if you decide to share your videos on Instagram — powerful insights into how those videos perform.”

Mosseri says the company has been working on Edits for months, though it’s not actually ready yet. Users can preorder the app now in the iOS App Store, with Android availability ‘soon', but it won’t be available to download until next month or later. Talking to The Verge’s Chris Welch on Threads, Mosseri says that it will likely end up quite different from CapCut with, “ a much broader range of creative tools and probably a smaller addressable audience. Think a place to track all your ideas instead of templates. Think AI video editing tools on a per clip or per video basis. Think new insights on why your videos are succeeding or struggling.”

Online video editing is a dynamic space at the moment, with a whole raft of companies jockeying for position to be able to produce videos for uploads to platforms such as Instagram. It therefore makes perfect sense for the platforms to create those tools themselves and try and keep that much more of the activity in house. You will lose a lot of the cross-platform capabilities though that makes tools such as Adobe Express so useful to an increasing amount of people. 

But it’s a big market and CapCut could leave a big gap. CapCut only launched outside China in 2020 and has already gained 300 million monthly active users and an estimated 81% of the mobile video editing market. Lots of people with more than a few vested interests will be watching what happens next to TikTok and its associated apps with interest.

tl;dr

• The recent brief TikTok ban has created widespread uncertainty in the U.S. regarding app restrictions and has impacted related apps, including CapCut and Marvel Snap.
• Incoming President Trump plans to issue an executive order extending TikTok's operations for another 90 days, providing assurance of no liability for companies that support the app during that time.
• Instagram is set to launch a new video editing app called Edits, which will offer various creative tools and features aimed at users creating content for the platform.
• CapCut's rapid growth and significant user base have intensified competition in the online video editing market, prompting interest in the future of video editing tools amid changing regulations.