Instagram's New Blend Feature: A Custom Reels Feed for Friends

Instagram Launches Blend: A Personalized Reels Experience

Instagram announced on Thursday the rollout of Blend, a novel feature designed to facilitate the creation of customized reels feeds. These feeds are specifically tailored for users and their friends.

How Blend Works

Blends are currently accessible via invitation only. They can be initiated with a single friend or within an existing group chat. The personalized feeds are dynamically updated with fresh content on a daily basis.

This launch was anticipated, following reports from TechCrunch in March 2024 detailing the social network’s development of this functionality.

Interactive Features

Upon joining or accepting a Blend invitation, users can explore reels curated for each member of the chat. When a participant reacts to a reel, Instagram will send a notification to others in the group. This encourages continued conversation within the direct messaging (DM) chat.

The Purpose Behind Blend

The core concept of Blend is to allow users to discover the reels their friends enjoy. It also aims to strengthen connections and facilitate the joint discovery of new content.

Blend seeks to reintroduce a social dimension to Instagram, harking back to its origins of sharing experiences with friends. This aspect has been somewhat diminished in recent times due to the growing presence of influencers and advertisements.

Competitive Advantage

The introduction of Blend provides Instagram users with a feature currently unavailable on TikTok, a major competitor. This differentiation could prove strategically valuable.

For Instagram, Blend represents a potential avenue for increasing the discovery and viewing time of reels on the platform. It incentivizes users to consume short-form video content collectively.

Creating a Blend

To establish a Blend, navigate to a one-on-one or group DM chat and select the new Blend icon located at the top of the chat interface. Subsequently, choose the “Invite” option to extend invitations to individuals within your DM chat.

A Blend is activated once at least one member of the chat accepts the invitation. Users can access an existing Blend by returning to the DM chat and tapping the Blend icon.

Similar Functionality Elsewhere

It is noteworthy that Blend shares similarities with Spotify’s feature of the same name. Spotify’s Blend allows users to combine their musical preferences into a single, shared playlist that is refreshed daily.