The TikTok ban everyone was dreading (or anticipating, perhaps) didn’t last long, but that didn’t stop Meta/Instagram from rolling out some updates during the window in which the app went dark.

On Sunday, Instagram, a subsidiary of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, announced a new app called Edits, apparently meant to take the place of CapCut, a video editing program used by millions to create short videos for TikTok.

CapCut and TikTok were both owned by China-based ByteDance, and thus both the targets of the recent short-lived U.S. ban, for “national security” reasons.

On the last day of Joe Biden’s presidency, the ban on TikTok was already being rescinded, but regardless, Instagram was already heralding their new product.

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now,” Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said in a post “No matter what happens, we think it’s our job to make the most compelling creative tools for those of you who create videos.”

Mosseri explained how Edits will be the same, and how it would be different, than other video apps.

“Edits is more than a video editing app; it’s a full suite of creative tools. There will be a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (which I used to record this video), all the editing tools you’d expect, the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and — if you decide to share your videos on Instagram — powerful insights into how those videos perform,” he said.

Meta has a history of adding features that are basically clones of other apps; its Reels feature was already designed to mimic TikTok and Threads was created as an alternative to X, née Twitter, which started losing a significant number of users after its recent takeover.

Users also noticed another change, rolled out beginning last Friday, when Instagram began rolling out a new look for the orientation on profile grids. Formerly square, users will now see everything they have and will upload in a vertical rectangle format – again, resembling TikTok’s layout. Not all users were happy with the change.

In another post, Mosseri defended the decision. “I know some of you really like your squares. And square photos are sort of the heritage of Instagram. But at this point, most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation,” Mosseri said. It’s a “bummer to overly crop them,” he added.

Mosseri called the change a pain, but said it that pain will be worth the short term inconvenience. “I think people will, over the long run, be excited that more of their photos and more of their videos are actually visible as intended in the profile as opposed to aggressively cropped,” he said.