Instagram’s First Draft trims Reels clips on iPhone

A stack of clips, each more than a minute long, can take longer to review than to record. Instagram’s new First Draft feature makes that first cut automatically on its iPhone app: select several clips, tap the button, and the service analyzes them, removes pauses and assembles the remaining moments into a Reel ready for editing.

The result is deliberately unfinished. Instagram calls it a “starting point” that users can refine before sharing, rather than a final video produced with no further work. The feature is intended for multi-clip montages, talking-head videos and day-in-the-life content, according to the company.

Users can find First Draft in Instagram’s camera after filming, or in the Reels gallery after selecting more than one clip. The workflow targets the repetitive opening step of short-form video editing: turning a group of recordings into a sequence worth polishing.

And so, concretely, iPhone users who regularly record several clips can get an initial Reel assembled without manually hunting through every pause. They still need to review and edit the result, but the blank timeline becomes a draft. Instagram has not said whether First Draft uses AI; The Verge compared it with Adobe’s AI-powered Quick Cut, but the underlying technology remains undisclosed.