InSTAGRAM’S NEW APP, EDITS
At Instagram, I led UX content strategy for Edits, a new standalone video editing app designed to empower social media creators with powerful AI tools, advanced editing capabilities, and detailed insights.
From product naming and UI content to App Store content and accessibility, I helped shape every touchpoint of the user experience. This cross-functional work spanned product, design, engineering, marketing, and creator research and resulted in a successful go-to-market launch with 8 million downloads on day one and the #1 in the iOS App Store on launch day. My work focused on creating clear UI and content strategy to support visual storytelling and empower users to express themselves.
I used the following content strategy principles to inform my work.
Crafty & Detailed — being detail-oriented and reflecting Instagram’s brand personality for the creator audience in all copy.
Playful & Experimental — embracing experimentation and competitive audits to stay ahead of the curve, highlighting the range of creative possibilities
Innovative & Transformative — introducing tools like Restyle, which leverages MetaAI’s capabilities and staying culturally relevant to create exciting options for creators.
App Store + HYPE Content Strategy
I started working on Edits during the peak of its early hype phase to support a strategic, high-impact launch. With the public announcement accelerated to align with a key market moment (TikTok temporarily going dark in January), my focus was on driving awareness and pre-downloads ahead of the global release on April 22.
I led the content strategy for App Store screenshots and previews, collaborating with product and go-to-market teams to identify what motivates creators to download a new tool. The final assets highlighted Edits’ standout features, including:
Stickies, a note-taking and annotation tool for saving creative ideas
A dedicated Ideas tab for organizing saved content and inspiration
High-quality footage and export options, based on direct creator feedback
No watermark on exported videos, enabling seamless cross-platform sharing
Writing clear content helped position Edits as a premiere, creator-first editing tool.
Edits app content strategy
I partnered closely with product design and engineering to shape two key new features in Edits:
The Ideas tab, where users can view all saved content—including Stickies and video clips synced from Instagram—to support organized, cross-platform creativity
The Inspiration feed, a personalized space to explore trending Reels, audio, and content from similar creators, with the ability to save or create directly from what they see
A unique challenge was maintaining the experience that creators know and love on Instagram while introducing new, standalone features in Edits. I provided content strategy with clear instructional UI in the end-to-end experience, starting with empty states to introduce new features.
Empty state messaging to introduce Ideas tab and add a sticky.
Intuitive add a sticky experience from the Inspiration feed and clear toast.
Clear filtering options for saved content and easy deletion flow.
I also led the naming strategy for thousands of creative assets—including Restyle presets (using MetaAI) sound effects, voice effects, video effects, transitions, filters, and caption styles. Then, I grouped them into clear, intuitive categories.
I met weekly with the go-to-market product team to create clear feature release notification strategies and wrote the weekly release notes using our CMS tool for the iOS App Store. I also documented new terminology with Acrolinx and all accessibility annotations.
Edits EARLY FEEDBACK & RECAP
Creating content for Instagram’s newest app was a full-circle moment for me. In 2021, just months after Instagram launched Reels, I began sharing my health journey—and within months, 27,000 new people joined my community on Instagram. This gave me a passion project and creative outlet part-time as I grew in my professional career as a full-time content designer. My experience as a creator deeply shaped my approach.
I wasn’t just designing content for an abstract user, I was designing for people like me: creators who care about their voice, who want intuitive tools, and who thrive when the technology supports their flow. My creator experience brought empathy, insight, and intention to every screen I touched, from naming effects to shaping how creators save ideas, get inspired, and edit with ease to share their passions and connect. We received some very positive team feedback during private sessions with Instagram’s top creators and learned that Edits is embraced in their new creator workflow. My team presented Edits at Config 2025, one of the largest UX design conferences hosted by Figma, and most recently showcased Edits at VidCon, hosting 250+ of Instagram’s top creators.
I’m incredibly proud to have helped build something that honors and empowers the people behind the content we love.