Can I capture Facebook Reels?

Yes. PostSnag captures Facebook Reels as one of its supported post types, right alongside photos, videos, albums, links, and text posts. A Reel is captured the same way as any other post: as you scroll past it on a profile, PostSnag reads its cover image, caption, and engagement numbers straight from your own Facebook session. There's no separate mode, no extra click, and no setting to turn on. If a Reel loads onto the page while you scroll, PostSnag captures it.

How PostSnag recognizes a Reel

PostSnag classifies every post it captures into one of six types: reel, video, photo, album, link, or text. It decides which type a post is from the structural signals on the page itself, not by guessing from a URL, and it checks in a set order: first whether the post is a Reel, then whether it's a native video, then whether it's an album or multiple images, then a single photo, then an external link, and finally plain text. That order matters because a post can look like more than one type at once; checking for Reels first is what keeps a Reel from getting misfiled as a plain video.

What PostSnag saves from a Reel

• Cover image. PostSnag saves the Reel's thumbnail, not the video file itself. This is true for every video-style post PostSnag captures, so a captured Reel is always a viewable image, never a downloaded video.

• Caption. The text the creator posted with the Reel.

• Engagement. Reaction total, comment count, share count, and a view count for the Reel's plays, the same fields PostSnag captures for any video post.

• Date and time. The exact time the Reel was posted, read from Facebook's own post data where it's available.

• The creator's name and profile link, and the original post URL, same as any other post.

[Screenshot: A captured Reel post card in the PostSnag panel, showing its thumbnail and engagement numbers]

Reels in your dashboard and exports

PostSnag records a Reel as its own post type the moment it captures it, but the dashboard's profile filters don't show a separate "Reel" chip. The filter options on a profile's post view are All, Video, Photo, Album, Link, and Text, and Reels are grouped under Video. Filter a profile to Video to see its native video posts and its Reels together. The type recorded for the post itself doesn't change: it's only the on-screen filter chip that folds Reels into Video. When you export a profile to a Markdown or CSV file from the dashboard, a Reel is included along with every other captured post type.

Capturing from a profile's own Reels tab

Some profiles have their own Reels tab, at a URL like facebook.com/username/reels. PostSnag recognizes this as the same profile you'd capture from their main feed, so you can open a person's Reels tab directly and scroll there if you specifically want their Reels instead of scrolling their whole feed looking for them.

What doesn't work

PostSnag captures Reels tied to a specific profile, whether from that profile's main feed or its own Reels tab. It does not capture from Facebook's general, top-level Reels feed or the Watch tab, the ones not tied to any one profile, since those aren't profile pages PostSnag recognizes for capture. If you want a creator's Reels, open their profile or their Reels tab directly rather than browsing Facebook's general Reels feed and hoping to capture from there.

Reels posted inside a Facebook Group

A Reel posted by a group member is captured the same way any of that member's group posts are: by opening their profile from inside the group and scrolling. It gets tagged to that group and kept separate from that person's own personal posts. See "Which Facebook profiles, Pages, and creators does PostSnag work on?" for how group member capture works in more detail.

If a Reel's thumbnail looks blank or wrong

Media loads into Facebook's page separately from a post's text, and a Reel's thumbnail can occasionally still be loading in the moment PostSnag captures it. Scrolling slowly and pausing briefly on Reels gives the thumbnail time to finish loading before PostSnag reads the post. See "How do I get the most complete and accurate capture?" for the full checklist.

Common questions

Does PostSnag save the actual Reel video file?
No. PostSnag saves the Reel's cover image, caption, and engagement, never the video file.

Will my captured Reels show up as a separate type in the dashboard?
Not as a filter option. Reels are grouped under the Video filter chip in a profile's post filters, alongside native video posts, though PostSnag still records each one as a Reel internally.

Can I capture only someone's Reels?
Yes. Open that profile's Reels tab and scroll there. PostSnag still recognizes it as the same profile and captures what loads.

Does PostSnag capture Reels from Facebook's general Reels feed or Watch tab?
No. Capture only works on a specific profile, whether from its main feed or its own Reels tab. Facebook's general Reels feed and Watch tab aren't tied to one profile, so PostSnag doesn't capture from them.

Are views counted for a Reel the same as for a video post?
Yes. PostSnag captures a view count for both Reels and native video posts, the same field either way.