Instagram’s New ‘Blend’ Feature Lets Friends Share Custom Reels

Instagram is rolling out a new feature called Blend, designed to personalize the Reels viewing experience among friends by creating shared, custom feeds. Announced on Thursday, the feature enables users to generate a daily-refreshed Reels feed that’s unique to a specific one-on-one or group chat. Once a Blend is created, users can view and react to short-form videos curated to reflect the interests of everyone involved.

The feature adds a social twist to Instagram’s algorithmic content delivery by blending the tastes of multiple users. According to the platform, any reactions to Reels within a Blend will prompt notifications, encouraging continued conversation in direct messages. The goal is to deepen engagement by turning content discovery into a more communal experience.

Blend is only accessible via invite, and creation is done directly within Instagram DMs. Users can initiate the feature by tapping a new Blend icon in a one-on-one or group chat, sending out invites that activate the shared feed once accepted. From there, participants can revisit the feed at any time by returning to the chat.

The move appears aimed at reinforcing Instagram’s positioning in the competitive short-form video space, particularly against rivals like TikTok, which currently lacks an equivalent feature. While Reels has driven much of Instagram’s recent growth, it has also contributed to a shift away from the platform’s original focus on friend-based content sharing. Blend may be part of a broader effort to reintroduce a social layer to content consumption.

The concept bears a resemblance to Spotify’s Blend playlists, which combine users’ musical tastes into a joint playlist refreshed daily, indicating an emerging trend in shared algorithmic experiences across platforms.