By Zack Seipert, Marketing & Communications Specialist | Central Utah Water Conservancy District
It’s 9:30 am on a Tuesday. You’ve already responded to two media inquiries, updated your agency’s Facebook page with the latest from your leadership team, and you haven’t even touched your caffeine yet. Somewhere on your list, between drafting talking points and coordinating with your public affairs director, is a note that says “post a Reel this week.”
Sound familiar? It should!
Government communicators don’t get enough credit. You’re the writer, the spokesperson, the photographer, the social media manager, and the crisis communications team, often all at once, often with a budget that doesn’t reflect any of that. And on top of everything else, every social media platform on the planet has decided that video is king. More Reels. More content. More, more, more.
If you’re going to keep up without burning out, you need tools in your corner that work as hard as you do. While Instagram’s Edits app can’t add hours to your day, it just might make the ones you have go a lot further. If you’ve downloaded it but only scratched the surface, here are ten features worth knowing about.
1. The Ideas Tab Is Your New Content Planner
Forget sticky notes on your monitor and cluttered screenshots. The Ideas tab lets you capture content ideas the moment they hit and quickly access your saved videos and Instagram collections in one place.
For communicators who think of a great post idea after hours, this is especially useful. Everything stays in one place, so no more hunting through three apps to find what you saved last Friday night.
2. Safe Zones Keep Your Text Visible
Safe Zones are yellow guidelines that show where Instagram’s interface elements like usernames, captions, and buttons may appear over your video. If you’ve ever posted a Reel only to find your key text buried under a username or like button, this feature is for you. Keep your information inside those lines and your message actually gets seen.
3. Beat Markers Take the Guesswork Out of Editing to Music
Even if your videos aren’t music-driven, this feature is worth understanding. The Beat Marker auto-detects the beats in your chosen audio so you can line up clips, text, and overlays with the music perfectly, no manual timing required. Great for event recaps, community highlights, or anything where pacing matters.
4. Audio Ducking Keeps Your Voice Front and Center
Ever add background music to a video, and suddenly your voiceover gets lost in the mix? Audio Ducking detects when someone is speaking in your video and automatically lowers the music volume, adjusts the voiceover level, and keeps the original voice clear and easy to hear. No manual fiddling with volume sliders, no re-editing to find the right balance.
5. The Teleprompter Means No More Fumbled Talking Points
The built-in teleprompter lets you read your script from any part of the screen, with adjustable speed and text size sliders. No more memorizing your statement, no more looking off-camera for notes. Just look at your phone and deliver. For communicators who regularly need to convey precise information on camera, this one is a quiet superpower.
6. “Apply All” Saves You From Repetitive Editing
If you’re editing multi-clip videos like an event recap, a facility tour, or a day-in-the-life post, this one’s a lifesaver. “Apply All” lets you apply filters, effects, transitions, or color adjustments to all your clips at once, eliminating repetitive edits one clip at a time. Consistent look, a fraction of the time.
7. Color Correction Tools for a More Polished Look
This feature arrived in a major November 2025 update and it’s a big one. Color correction gives you professional-level control over your video’s visual appearance, adjusting brightness, exposure, contrast, and overall color grading.
You can also apply Instagram’s built-in filters to change the overall vibe of your videos instantly. For agencies that care about brand consistency, this is how you make sure every video looks like it came from the same shop.
8. Voice Enhancer Cleans Up Your Audio
The Voice Enhancer feature lets you apply special effects to your voiceovers and, crucially, it includes background noise removal. Recording a quick update in a noisy EOC, near a road closure, or at a community event? This tool helps your audio sound clear and professional even when your environment isn’t cooperating.
9. Keep Your Agency’s Branding On Point with Custom Text
Consistency builds trust, but hunting for hex codes when pressed for time is less than ideal. The My Colors feature in Edits lets you set specific brand colors and fonts directly into the editor.
Instead of settling for “close enough,” you can one-tap your organization’s exact official palette. This ensures that every text overlay and graphic looks like it came from your office, keeping your official communications distinct from the rest of the noise in a resident’s feed.
10. Deeper Insights Right Inside the App
Real-time feedback on factors that affect distribution, like skip rate, is built right into the app so you know what’s working and what to try next. For those who want to know whether their message is actually being seen, this data matters.
There’s a bonus worth mentioning: Instagram is reportedly prioritizing Reels created in Edits, so even if you sometimes edit elsewhere, running your video through the app before posting could give you an extra boost.
The Bottom Line
Edits isn’t just an editing app. It’s quickly becoming a video content workflow tool. And it keeps getting better; Instagram has pushed multiple significant updates since its April 2025 launch with no signs of slowing down. For communicators managing video production solo or with a small team, it’s definitely worth checking out.
Utah PIO Association 