ICYMI, Instagram launched trial reels back in December 2024. Unlike a regular reel, trial reels aren’t shown to your followers; they’re only shown to accounts that don’t follow you yet.
Instagram built the trial reel feature to let creators experiment with new content types without diluting their grid or feed. If you want to learn more about trial reels and how creators are using them to expand their reach, scroll on.
How Do Trial Reels Work?
Trial reels don’t appear on your profile or get shown to your followers; instead, they’re shown exclusively to people who don’t already follow you.
To use trial reels, you must have a Professional Instagram account — either Creator or Business. There is a limit to how many trial reels you can post a day, but it’s different for each account; most creators cap it off at five trial reels a day to avoid getting bonked by Instagram.
Twenty-four hours after sharing a trial reel, you’ll be able to see its engagement metrics (views, likes, comments, shares, etc.). If your reel is performing well, you can choose to “share with everyone” so that your followers can see and engage with it too. There’s also an option to share trial reels after 72 hours automatically.
Instagram does its best to show trial reels to users who are likely to like the content, which is why they often go viral.
Sarah Gavilla, Manychat’s social media manager, has experimented with trial reels on her Instagram page. She made a video about the experience with advice for creators thinking of using this feature: How to Use Trial Reels to BLOW UP Your Instagram Account.
Why use trial reels?
Here’s what Instagram says about trial reels on the official feature announcement post:
“If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to experiment with new ideas without the worry of how your followers might react, trial reels give you the freedom to take your creativity even further while helping to take the guesswork out of how your content could perform.”
The gist: Trial reels let you post whatever you want and see how it performs without worrying about whether it fits in with everything else on your page.
But as a bonus, trial reels increase your reach. In Sarah Gavilla’s video, she says that one of her reels achieved 26,000 views before she shared it with her followers. Similarly, Erin Donahue, a photographer and content creator, drove millions of views with trial reels in just two weeks.
“I started using [trial reels] right away since early adoption usually gets rewarded. That happened almost immediately,” Erin says.
One of her first trial reels got over 1 million views. She decided to post another one, and that trial reel also exploded, getting over 5 million views.
All this to say, trial reels can get your content in front of a lot of fresh eyes. And ideally, some of those people follow you and stick around.
Just beware the virality trap; even though Erin’s videos got millions of views, “then came months of a lull, the familiar pattern after mega-virality,” she says.
On that note: Virality is a Trap (but Here’s How to Exploit it Anyway)
How to Post a Trial Reel
Posting a trial reel is incredibly easy. Let’s do it.
- Create and export the video you want to post (I used the Edits app for this).
- Open Instagram, tap the +, then swipe to Reels. Upload your video.
- Before hitting Share, scroll down and toggle on Trial.
- Hit Share, then sit tight for 24 hours while your reel makes the rounds.
Optional: Tap Trial settings, then toggle on Share to everyone automatically if you want your video posted to your followers after 72 hours.
Trial reels won’t appear on your main grid, but if you access the reels tab on your profile, you can see them there.
5 Things to Try with Trial Reels
If you’re wondering where to start with trial reels, this section is for you. Ahead, five ways you can use trial reels to expand your reach and A/B test content formats.
1. Repost top content
You can download one of your top-performing reels and repost it as a trial reel to reach new people. “In my opinion, this is one of the smartest ways to use trial reels because if you’ve had a reel that’s done well in the past, odds are it’s probably going to do well again,” Sarah Gavilla says.
Just make sure you toggle off Share to everyone automatically if you do this.
2. Adjacent content types
If there are topics or formats adjacent to your usual content, trial reels are a great way to explore them.
For example, a fitness creator who usually posts workouts could try sharing grocery haul videos; a small business owner who usually posts about their products/services could post about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur instead.
If a new format performs well with non-followers, that’s a sign that it may be worth sharing with your followers and adding to your regular content mix.
3. A/B test hooks
The first few seconds of a reel determine whether someone keeps watching or scrolls away. Trial reels let you A/B-test different hooks and see which captures attention. You can try on-screen text vs. auto-generated captions or negative vs. positive framing (i.e., “five things you’re doing wrong vs. five things to start doing today”).
4. New editing styles
Editing can completely change how a video feels, and trial reels let you experiment with different production styles in a low-pressure environment.
In general, less-polished content performs better than highly edited videos on Instagram. But to see if this holds for your account, you could use trial reels to post two versions of the same video: one minimally edited and one highly edited (with text, transitions, music, and so on).
5. Different video lengths
Short-form (< 15 seconds) video dominates on Instagram, but if you want to dive deeper into a topic, you can use trial reels to test different lengths. The maximum length for an Instagram reel is three minutes, so keep that in mind — any longer than that, and you’ll need to turn to TikTok or YouTube to upload your content.
Trial Reels: Worth a Try
Adam Mosseri recently shared three tips for creators who want to post more reels in 2026:
- Use the Edits app. (Manyblog about this coming soon!)
- Post trial reels.
- Check Instagram Insights (so you know what’s working).
So there it is, straight from the head of Instagram: If you add something new to your reels strategy this year, make it trial reels. You can use them to figure out what resonates with the people you’re trying to reach — and reach new people in general.
Then, when your next trial reel goes mega viral, we’ll be here, ready to help with the flood of comments in your notifications tab. Manychat is free and easy to use (you can literally automate while you sleep), so why not give it a try while you’re in the experimental mood?
