Instagram is moving ahead with its testing of “Blend”, a new feature built into messaging that will enable you to view a co-operative feed of AI recommended Reels for you and a friend.
Instagram’s been testing Blend for more than a year, with this latest iteration now looking close to final, with a full onboarding explainer and dedicated graphics.
As you can see in the example, which was shared by @uw.3 on Threads, some users are now able to access Blend in their DM feed. When activated, you can invite people to join your Blend feed via message (second screen above).
As the description notes, the Blend feed enables you to see each other’s suggested Reels:
“See who each Reel is suggested for based on each person’s activity on Instagram, including the Reels they watch and interact with.”
So rather than sending Reels to each other, which has become the most common form of interaction in the app, Blend will show you all of the Reels that you and your friend would be shown individually, within a single stream.
What’s more, the Blend feed will re-align itself to your collective interests based on future Reels that you share in the chat.
So it’s an effort to maximize sharing behavior, based on the rise of DM activity, and the popularity of Reels, by formalizing a shared experience approach, as opposed to you having to continually share your favorite Reels with each other.
Which could work. Definitely, it feels like a more collaborative, interactive process. But then again, I feel like the majority of this type of sharing right now is focused on forwarding relevant highlights to each specific person, not showing others a full stream of what you see in the app.
You’ve likely got a range of interests influencing your IG feed, and you have that one friend who likes Reels of dogs, and another who likes DIY content, while another who likes fitness tips. These are all going to be within your feed, and the fun of sharing them is that you can pick out the relevant clips for each connection.
So I don’t really see how this will be a useful addition a scale, unless you and a friend are super aligned in your interests.
But Instagram seems convinced that it’s on a winner, with IG chief Adam Mosseri recently identifying it as a coming feature that he’s most excited about.
Though he’s pretty much always excited about whatever the next feature up is, so I’m not sure that’s a great endorsement. But either way, it now looks close to a broader launch, aligning with IG’s push to boost messaging engagement in 2025.
So maybe it’ll be a thing, maybe not. But you’ll likely see it show up in your IG DMs soon.
