Facebook Reels API and Specifications

On September 19th, 2022 Meta launched Reels on Facebook for iOS and Android in the US. Facebook is bringing short form, entertaining video experiences and tools that have inspired creators on Instagram to more creators and audiences on the Facebook app. That same day Facebook has also allowed 3rd party tools to integrate Facebook Reels scheduling into their tools by making Facebook Reels API generally available to all developers.

Facebook seems to realize that many creators and brands rely on third-party tools when creating Facebook and Instagram Reels and decided on making it possible for tools to to enable Facebook Reels scheduling with this API. That’s fantastic and pales in comparison to the how long tools had to wait for Instagram API to catch up to their videos and reels. To this date, there is no API to schedule Instagram stories! Go figure!

The new API release follows a similar announcement from Facebook for Instagram in June. Facebook launched Instagram Reels API for developers to post Reels directly to Instagram Business accounts. Last month, Facebook introduced a feature to allow all users to cross-post Reels from Instagram to Facebook. Facebook launched an auto-generated Reels tool for Facebook that made a memory clip Reel using your previously shared Stories.

Who benefits from Facebook Reels API?

This API enables social media management platforms like Vista Social to easily integrate Facebook Reels scheduling into their platforms. This means that users of such platforms that include social media managers, marketing agencies, publishers, and creators to easily scheduled Facebook Reels along side all other short form video formats that are already possible to schedule: Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube shorts.

What the features of the Facebook Reels API?

Facebook Reels API is quite basic and follows the footsteps of Facebook Video API. Key features of this API include:

• Ability to upload videos
• Ability to customize thumbnails
• Ability to give videos custom titles and descriptions.
• Ability to setup organic targetting for reels that includes country, gender, age, etc.

What are video specifications for Facebook Reels?

There a few requirements that will restrict the kinds of videos that can be uploaded:

• Aspect Ratio 9:16 (good news here – it is the same as on Instagram and TikTok)
• Duration needs to be between 4 to 60 seconds
• Min bit rate 23
• Video formats: 3g2, 3gp, 3gpp, asf, avi, dat, divx, dv, f4v, flv, m2ts, m4v, mkv, mod, mov, mp4, mpe, mpeg, mpeg4, mpg, mts, nsv, ogm, ogv, qt, tod, ts, vob, wmv.

Facebook Reels API limitations

It is important to note that Facebook Reels can be scheduled on behalf of pages only at this point. Facebook Reels can not be scheduled on behalf of groups and personal profiles.

What features can be built using Facebook Reels API?

Since Facebook Reels API is part of Facebook Graph API, it simply extends its capability into this new dimension. Primary feature that products can now add to their offering is ability to schedule Facebook Reels.

Vista Social and Facebook Reels API

Every new features that any social platform makes available is a huge call to arms for our team. We pretty much drop everything we are doing to implement it as we know how important it is for our users to get the latest network features! On September 21, just 2 days after Facebook Reels API was made available, Vista Social made it possible to schedule Facebook Reels using its platform.