Watching a variety of Instagram Reels has never been easier than in a special group chat with friends. Instagram has launched Blend, a new feature that allows you to create custom Reels feeds for you and anyone you invite into a DM group.
The Meta-owned platform announced the rollout of Instagram Blend on Thursday (per TechCrunch), which is inspired by a Spotify playlist of the same name called Spotify Blend that mixes your music tastes with those of the person you invite into that playlist (assuming they have Spotify at all), and the songs refresh daily. With Instagram Blend, you can create a Reels feed in a one-on-one DM with another person or in a group chat with friends or family.
To create a Blend, tap the Blend icon located next to the call icon on the top right corner of the chat and select Invite to invite people from the same chat to join. Only when one person accepts the invitation can the Blend be born. You can also join a Blend if someone from another chat invites you to it. Either way, you’ll be able to scroll through Reels other people share that fall outside of what’s suggested to you on your main feed, and content gets refreshed every day.
Instagram Blend comes three months after the company introduced a dedicated Reels tab that allows users to see Reels their friends and followers have liked or commented on. That is a more public feature compared to Blend, where you can see Reels that your friends and family members liked or commented on in a more private setting. The one thing both Reels-centric features have in common is it helps boost discovery of content and content creators you don’t normally see on your regular feed, and if your friends like a certain Reel, chances are you will, too.
Instagram Blend isn’t available on everyone’s chat feeds yet. Updating the Instagram app from the App Store or Google Play will allow the Blend icon to show up in the chats, but it’ll be inactive for some.
