Instagram Launches “Blend” – A New Way to Share Reels With Friends

After more than a year of testing, Instagram has officially rolled out a new feature called Blend for Reels — and it’s all about making sharing with friends even easier and more fun.

So, what is Blend?
It’s a new way to create a shared feed of Reels with a friend or a group chat. Instead of sending Reels back and forth one by one, you and your friend(s) can now view a stream of recommended Reels tailored to all of you in one place. Cool, right?

Here’s how it works:
You start a Blend from any DM chat by tapping the Blend icon at the top of the screen. Once you invite your friend(s), Instagram creates a combined Reels feed based on what each person watches and engages with. So if one of you loves cat videos and the other is into fitness tips — you’ll both see content that mixes your shared interests.

What’s more, as you keep watching and sending Reels in that chat, the Blend feed will keep updating to match your evolving tastes.

You’ll also be able to see who each Reel is recommended for, and when someone reacts or comments on a Reel, the whole chat gets a notification — encouraging more fun and conversations like “OMG this Reel is so you!”

Instagram is clearly leaning into the trend of users sharing Reels through DMs, which is now one of the app’s most popular features. Blend takes that behavior and turns it into a more interactive and collaborative experience.

That said, some might still prefer the personal touch of sending specific Reels to specific friends — like little handpicked gifts. Blend, on the other hand, is more like everyone dipping into the same playlist.