This could be interesting.
Instagram looks to be experimenting with a new option that would enable you to hide the description and UI buttons on Reels clips, giving you a cleaner viewing experience.
As you can see in this screenshot, posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram is experimenting with what it’s calling Clear Mode, which would be activated by long pressing on a Reel.
Once you turn it on, all of the UI and descriptions would be hidden from view, so that you can better focus on the main video content.
Which, incidentally, is almost exactly the functionality that a Reddit user recommended for this over a year ago, noting that Instagram could easily provide a way to clear the screen, and limit clutter, while also adding a speaker icon as an alternative mute.
Because it is frustrating, at times, when the UI elements cover the screen.
TikTok already has a Clear Display option, which you can access by long-pressing on a clip. The only limitation of that is you can only clear the display for each video that you’re watching, one-by-one, because as soon as you swipe to the next video, the UI elements return.
Which makes perfect sense, as TikTok wants to give credit and promotion to creators, and provide more ways for users to interact. But given that the functionality is already on TikTok, it seems logical for Instagram to add the same.
As such, I’d expect this to be coming soon. We’ve asked IG for more info on this test, and whether it might be rolled out more broadly in future.