Post to Reels, Shorts and TikTok at the same time
The same vertical video works on all three, but each one wants something a little different around it. Reels run up to 15 minutes. Shorts want a title as well as a description. TikTok asks about comments, duets and stitches on every post. deploy.social takes one upload, handles each platform's quirks for you, and posts all three together.
What changes between the three
| Instagram Reels | YouTube Shorts | TikTok | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | Up to 15 minutes | Up to 3 minutes | Up to 10 minutes on most accounts |
| Caption | 2,200 characters | 100-character title, 5,000-character description | 2,200 characters |
| Hashtags | In the caption | Become tags | In the caption |
| Options | Share to feed, first comment | Privacy, made-for-kids | Who can watch, comments, duet, stitch |
| Account | Business or Creator | Any channel | Any account |
One deploy, three posts
Pick the three
Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, connected once. Click the three and continue.
Upload the clip
A vertical 1080 by 1920 MP4 is right for all three. If it's over 3 minutes, Deploy will tell you it's too long for Shorts and post it to Reels and TikTok anyway.
Write it once
One caption fills Instagram, TikTok and the YouTube description. Give YouTube a title, and change the TikTok caption if you want different hashtags there. Deploy keeps each one inside its limit.
Set the options
Made-for-kids on YouTube. Who can watch, comments, duets and stitches on TikTok. Share to feed and a first comment on Instagram. Set once, remembered next time.
Deploy or schedule
All three go out together, and each reports back on its own. If one has a bad day, the other two are already live and you can retry just that one.
Questions
Can you post the same video to Reels, Shorts and TikTok?
Yes! The same vertical MP4 works on all three, and deploy.social posts it to Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok from one upload with the right caption on each. Five a month are free.
How long can the video be?
Reels take up to 15 minutes, TikTok up to 10 minutes on most accounts, and Shorts up to 3 minutes. If a clip is too long for one of them, deploy.social tells you and posts it to the others.
Does YouTube know it's a Short?
YouTube decides by shape and length: square or vertical, and up to 3 minutes. deploy.social posts to your channel and YouTube puts it in Shorts.
Do I need an Instagram Business account?
Yes. Instagram only lets tools post to Business and Creator accounts. Switching a personal account to Creator takes a minute in Instagram's settings.
Will the TikTok post have a watermark?
No. deploy.social uploads your original file to TikTok. Watermarks come from downloading a video off one platform and re-uploading it somewhere else, which Deploy never does.
Try it with one clip.
Connect the three, upload one video, and see all three results on one screen. It's free.
Keep reading
- Post to all social media at once
How a deploy works, start to finish.
- What deploy.social does
Everything Deploy does, in one place.
- ShortSync alternative
Same job, $15 instead of $17.20. The closest comparison.
- Post a video, step by step
The same deploy, walked through in the docs.
- TikTok to Bluesky
Plays in the Bluesky feed; the caption gets cut to 300 characters.
- TikTok to Threads
Up to 5 minutes on Threads, with no TikTok logo.
- TikTok to X
A native video on X, not a link to TikTok.
- Instagram Reels to Bluesky
Reels up to 10 minutes fit; longer ones need a trim.
- Instagram Reels to X
The Reel plays on X, with the caption cut to 280 characters.
- YouTube Shorts to Bluesky
The video itself on Bluesky, instead of a YouTube link card.
- YouTube Shorts to Threads
Shorts top out at 3 minutes, so they fit Threads as they are.
- YouTube Shorts to X
Upload the file and it plays in the feed, not as a link card.