In an attempt to make the recent viral format more accessible to users, Meta is launching a Facebook Reels API for developers, an enterprise solution that allows users to directly share Reels on Facebook pages from desktop or web-based third-party apps using the “Share to Reels” feature.

In the announcement blog post, the company explained that the new tool is meant to “remove friction for users previously using 3rd party platforms and then uploading at a later time to Facebook”. The blog post reads: “We realize that many creators and brands rely on third-party tools when creating Facebook Reels and we want to enable simplicity and ease of sharing video content from their tool or app of choice through the ‘share to reels’ feature.”

So far, three of Meta’s launch partners have already integrated the new Reels API in their platforms: creator economy platform Jellysmack, social media management tool Sprout Social and website creation platform Wix.

The release follows a similar feature introduction for Instagram in June, allowing users to post Reels directly to Instagram Business accounts through a dedicated API.

One month later, Instagram announced that all videos shorter than 15 minutes will now be shared as reels, consolidating the video and reels tab into one single home for all videos on the app, and last month, the company started allowing users to cross-post Reels from Instagram to Facebook, maximizing the accessibility and interoperability of the new feature on its two biggest creator platforms.

The new features come as no surprise, as Meta banks on it to be its biggest and most lucrative release. The latest Instagram Reels statistics show that Reels have an ad audience of over 675M Instagram users, and a potential reach of 675.3M users, making it one of the most effective content formats to date.