🎬 Turn Instagram Reels Into Text (Super Easy!)

Think of this like having a personal assistant that watches Instagram videos and types out everything people say - but it's completely private and runs on your own computer!

Perfect for:

📝 Content creators who want to repurpose video content
📚 Students & researchers studying social media content
🎙️ Podcasters & journalists extracting quotes from videos
🌍 Anyone who needs video speech turned into readable text

✨ What This App Does (In Simple Terms)

Think of it like this: You know how YouTube can show captions for videos? This does the same thing, but for Instagram Reels, and you get to keep the text!

Here's what happens:

📱 You give it a link to an Instagram Reel
🤖 It watches the video and listens carefully
✍️ It types out everything people say in the video
💾 You get the text to save, copy, or use however you want

The best part? Everything stays on your computer - nothing gets sent anywhere else on the internet!

🚀 Super Quick Start (Takes 2 Minutes!)

Don't worry - this is way easier than it looks! Just follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the Files 📥

Download this app to your computer (click the green "Code" button above and select "Download ZIP", then unzip it anywhere you like)

Step 2: Run the Magic Installer ✨

Mac users: Double-click install.command (this actually works with double-click!) Windows users: Double-click install.bat Linux/Terminal users: Run ./install.sh in Terminal

That's it! The installer is like a helpful robot that:

🤖 Checks if your computer has everything it needs
📦 Downloads and installs anything missing (automatically!)
🧠 Downloads the AI "brain" that does the transcribing
✅ Sets everything up perfectly for you

This takes about 2 minutes and you don't need to do anything except wait

Step 3: Start Using It! 🎉

Look for files called:

Windows users: Double-click run_app.bat
Mac users: Double-click run_app.command

Congratulations! The app should open and you're ready to turn videos into text!

🎯 How to Use the App (Step by Step)

The Easy Way (Recommended!)

Double-click the right file for your computer:
- Windows: Double-click run_app.bat
- Mac: Double-click run_app.command
A window opens - this is your transcription app!
Get an Instagram Reel link:
- Go to Instagram in your web browser
- Find a Reel you want to transcribe (it must be public, not private)
- Click on the Reel to open it
- Copy the web address from the top of your browser (it looks like: instagram.com/reel/ABC123/)
Paste the link into the app:
- Look for a box that says "Instagram Reel URL"
- Paste your copied link there
Choose your settings (or just leave them as-is):
- Speed vs Quality: "Base" is perfect for most people
  - Tiny (39MB): Super fast, okay quality
  - Base (74MB): Good balance (default) ✅
  - Small (244MB): Better quality, slower
  - Medium (769MB): High quality transcription
  - Large (1550MB): Best quality, slowest
- Language: Usually "Auto-detect" works great
Click "Start Transcription"
- The app will show you what it's doing (downloading, listening, typing)
- This usually takes 1-3 minutes depending on video length
Get your text!
- The transcription appears in the big text box
- Click "Save Transcript" to save it as a text file
- Or click "Copy to Clipboard" to paste it somewhere else

That's it! You just turned a video into text!

❓ What if Something Goes Wrong?

Don't panic! Here are the most common issues and super simple fixes:

"I double-clicked but nothing happened"

On Mac:

Double-click install.command (not install.sh)
If that doesn't work, right-click install.command and choose "Open"
For Terminal users: Run ./install.sh directly

On Windows:

Double-click install.bat (not install.sh)
If that doesn't work, make sure Python is installed from python.org
Then open Command Prompt and run:
```
install.bat
```

"The app won't start when I double-click the run file"

This usually means the installation didn't finish completely. Try this:

Re-run the installer:
- Mac: Double-click install.command
- Windows: Double-click install.bat
Wait for it to completely finish (you'll see "Installation complete!" or similar)
Then try the run file again

"It says the Instagram link is invalid"

✅ Make sure it's a public Reel (private accounts won't work)
✅ Copy the full web address from your browser's address bar
✅ The link should look like: https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/

"The transcription came out blank or gibberish"

🎵 Music-only videos won't have text (the app needs people talking)
🔊 Very noisy videos might not work well (background music is usually okay)
🗣️ Try a video where someone is clearly speaking

"It's taking forever to download"

⏳ First time use downloads the AI "brain" (about 150MB - this only happens once!)
📶 Check your internet connection
⚡ Try using "Tiny" model for faster processing

Still Having Trouble?

Easy solution: Create a help request here and tell us:

What you were trying to do
What error message you saw (if any)
Are you using Windows or Mac?

We're friendly and helpful! 🤗

🌟 Cool Features You Get

Think of this as your personal video-to-text assistant that:

📱 Works with any public Instagram Reel - Just copy and paste the link!
🎯 Really accurate transcription - Uses the same AI technology as professional services
🌍 Understands 50+ languages - English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Arabic, and tons more
⚡ Pretty fast - Most videos take just 1-3 minutes to transcribe
💾 Lets you save everything - Keep transcripts as text files or copy to use elsewhere
🔒 Completely private - Nothing leaves your computer, ever
🎨 Simple to use - No confusing buttons or technical jargon
📊 Shows you what it's doing - You can watch the progress so you're never wondering if it's stuck

Languages it understands: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, and many more!

🔧 More Detailed Help (If Needed)

Most people won't need this section! The simple steps above should work for almost everyone. But if you're curious about the details or ran into a more complex issue, here's some extra information.

Alternative Ways to Start the App

If the double-click method doesn't work for some reason, you can also:

Method 1: Using Terminal/Command Prompt (Any Computer)

# Navigate to your app folder first
cd path/to/your/downloaded/folder

# Then run this:
./install.sh
./run_app.sh  # Mac/Linux
# OR
run_app.bat  # Windows

Method 2: The Technical Way (Advanced Users)

# Activate the environment
source .venv/bin/activate  # Mac/Linux
.venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows

# Run the app
python main.py

What if You Want to Use the Command Line Version?

Some people prefer typing commands instead of using the visual app. If that's you:

# First activate the environment (one time)
source .venv/bin/activate  # Mac/Linux
.venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows

# Then transcribe a single video
python cli.py https://www.instagram.com/reel/XXXXX/

# Or use interactive mode for multiple videos
python cli.py --interactive

Technical Details About Installation

The install.sh script does these things automatically:

Installs Python 3.12 if you don't have it
Installs a super-fast package manager called 'uv'
Creates a safe, isolated space for the app (called a "virtual environment")
Downloads all the code libraries the app needs
Downloads the AI model that does the transcription

If Installation Completely Fails

Try this manual approach:

# Install uv first (copy the right command for your system)
# Windows (PowerShell):
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

# Mac/Linux:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Then install the app
uv venv
uv pip sync requirements.txt

📚 Important Information

Privacy & Safety

This app is completely private. Unlike online services, everything happens on your computer:

✅ Your videos are never uploaded anywhere
✅ The transcripts stay on your computer
✅ No accounts or sign-ups required
✅ No data tracking or analytics

Legal & Ethical Use

📝 Only use with public Instagram Reels (private content isn't accessible anyway)
🤝 Respect content creators - don't use transcripts to copy or steal content
📖 Follow Instagram's terms of service
💡 Great for: research, accessibility, personal notes, content analysis
❌ Not for: republishing others' content without permission

What Powers This App

🧠 AI Transcription: OpenAI's Whisper (the same technology used by professional services)
📥 Video Downloading: yt-dlp (a powerful, open-source video downloader)
🎨 Interface: FreeSimpleGUI (simple, clean desktop app framework)
⚡ Fast Installation: uv package manager (10x faster than traditional Python installers)

🎓 For Developers & Technical Users

Click here for technical details, command line options, and development setup

Command Line Options

# Advanced CLI usage (after activating environment)
python cli.py --model large --language en --verbose https://instagram.com/reel/XXX/
python cli.py --timeout 120 --interactive

Development Setup

# Install development dependencies
uv pip install -r requirements-dev.txt

# Run tests and linting
uv run pytest
uv run flake8
uv run black .

Managing Dependencies

# Update dependencies
uv pip sync requirements.txt --upgrade

# Add new packages
uv pip install package-name && uv pip freeze > requirements.txt

Configuration

Edit config/settings.py to customize default model size, timeouts, languages, and logging levels.

To change the default Whisper model that gets downloaded during installation, edit line 178 in install.sh:

MODEL_SIZE = "base"  # Change to: tiny, small, medium, or large

💝 Like This App? Here's How You Can Help!

If this tool saved you time and made your life easier:

⭐ Star this project - It helps others find it too!
🐛 Report any bugs - We'll fix them quickly
💡 Suggest improvements - We love new ideas
📣 Tell your friends - Share it with anyone who might need it

🤝 Want to Contribute?

For developers: This is an open-source project and we welcome contributions! Check out the technical details section above for development setup.

For everyone else: Bug reports and feature suggestions are super valuable too!

📜 License & Legal

Free to use: MIT License (use it however you want!)
Important reminder: Only use with public content and respect creators' rights
Made with ❤️ by: Christoph Beckmann

🎉 Enjoy turning those videos into text!

Got questions? Found a bug? Want a new feature? Create an issue here - we're friendly and respond quickly!

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
config		config
core		core
gui		gui
scripts		scripts
tests		tests
utils		utils
.flake8		.flake8
.gitignore		.gitignore
.pre-commit-config.yaml		.pre-commit-config.yaml
.pylintrc		.pylintrc
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
cli.py		cli.py
install.command		install.command
install.sh		install.sh
main.py		main.py
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
pytest.ini		pytest.ini
run_app.bat		run_app.bat
run_app.command		run_app.command
run_app.sh		run_app.sh

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