Optional. Without connecting, ReelEditor sends each finished video to your iPhone by AirDrop or a QR code, caption ready to copy, and you post from the Instagram or TikTok app. Connecting adds posting from the app and trial reels (testing versions on people who don’t follow you yet).
Before you start
- An Instagram professional account (Creator or Business). Still personal? In the Instagram app: Settings and activity → Account type and tools → Switch to professional account. It’s free and you can switch back.
- A Facebook login for Meta for Developers. It’s free; the first time, it may ask you to verify a phone number.
Why a Meta app of your own: until Meta approves ReelEditor for everyone, Instagram only lets apps post for accounts that set up their own free developer app. It’s yours, nobody else uses it, and you only do this once.
The steps
- Open Meta for Developers. Go to developers.facebook.com/apps and log in with Facebook.
- Create an app. Press Create app and give it any name, for example “ReelEditor”. Add your email if it asks.
- Pick the use case. Choose Manage messaging & content on Instagram, then keep pressing Next until you can press Create app.
- Open the Instagram setup. In your new app, open Instagram → API setup with Instagram business login.
- Add your account. Under Generate access tokens, press Add account and log in to Instagram with your professional account.
- Only if Meta asks: make yourself a tester. Open App roles → Roles and add your Instagram account as an Instagram tester. Then accept the invite in the Instagram app: Settings → Apps and websites → Tester invites.
- Make a token. Back in API setup with Instagram business login, press Generate token beside your account, log in again if asked, and copy the long code it shows.
- Paste it in ReelEditor. In ReelEditor, open Settings → Connections → Connect Instagram (or the Instagram row in the setup screen), paste the code and press Connect. ReelEditor checks it with Instagram and keeps it in your Mac’s Keychain, and renews it while the app runs.
For trial reel results
To read how each trial reel does, your Meta app needs the instagram_business_manage_insights permission: in your app, open the Instagram use case → Customize → Permissions and features and add it. Then make a new token (step 7) and paste it again: an old token can’t gain a permission.
If something goes wrong
- “Personal account” or it can’t post: switch to a professional account (see Before you start), then make a new token.
- The token isn’t accepted: copy the whole code again, without spaces at either end. Tokens from the Graph API Explorer won’t work; use Generate token in the Instagram setup page.
- “Not a tester” or the account won’t add: do step 6 and accept the invite in the Instagram app.
- Still stuck? Write to support@reeleditor.ai and tell us which step.
ReelEditor never posts by itself: every post and every trial reel starts with you pressing Post.