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What is Instagram Blend? How does it work? How do I create one?

2025 April 18
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Here’s how Instagram Blend works and how to use it to create a shared reels feed combining recommendations that you and select friends may like.

Instagram Blend brings friends around shared interests. “We want Instagram to be a place where people connect over creativity and this is one more way to do that,” Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said in a reel. “It’s a really fun way to not only share your interests, but to learn a little bit about your friends’ interests. And then you can actually start conversations about that content that you discover.”

You can create a blend feed just for you and a single friend or a group of friends. The goal is to increase engagement and boost reels’ discovery with an exclusive feature that Instagram rival TikTok doesn’t have (yet).

What is Instagram Blend? How does it work?

Similar to Spotify’s collaborative Blend playlists, Instagram Blend brings together reels that you and your friends might like into a single feed so that everyone can discover new recommended content together. It’s a far cry from Instagram’s regular feed, which is mostly filled with content from influencers and ads.

The algorithm picks reels that friends have shared in the DM thread and videos that each chat participant has browsed. The blend feed is refreshed daily with new content and every time a reel is reshared to the chat. “If someone joins the blend, it refreshes to include reels suggested for the person who joins,” Meta notes.

How to create an Instagram blend to see your friend’s suggested reels

To create a blend, open a one-on-one chat or a group conversation with friends and hit the new Blend icon at the top of the chat, then select “Invite” and cherry-pick friends from the DM thread. A blend is created when at least one chat participant accepts your invite. To adjust blend settings, hit the Blend icon at the top of the chat.

“See who each Reel is suggested for based on each person’s activity on Instagram, including the Reels they watch and interact with,” reads the description. As for your privacy, the suggestions algorithm honors the sensitive content setting of the blend member using the strictest filter.

“When viewing reels in a blend, you can send a message or quick reaction about a specific reel in the blend back to the related chat,” per Instagram Help. “The reel you are replying to will be shown alongside your message. As usual, you can share or engage with a reel publicly using the comment, like and share icons on the right.”

How to influence blend recommendations and leave a blend

To remove a suggested reel from your blend, hit the three-dotted icon in the bottom-right of the reel and select “Remove from your blends.” The reel is pulled from all the blends you’re a member of.

You can influence Instagram’s suggestions algorithm by choosing “Interested” or “Not Interested” from a reel’s three-dotted menu. Doing so will instruct the algorithm to get more or less suggestions for similar reels. in the current blend.

To leave your or someone else’s blend, hit the gear settings icon in the top-right corner of the blend and choose “Leave this blend.” The feed is updated when someone leaves the blend to remove content suggested for that person.

I don’t have Instagram Blend

Meta has been testing Blend with a small group of Instagram users since March. It’s now being rolled out to all users, which may take some time to complete.”Blend is new and may not be available to everyone at this time,” Meta noted. Blend is currently unavailable on the web.

If you don’t see the Blend icon, check back later. To be sure your installed copy of that app is up to date, open the Instagram page on the App Store and hit the Update button. Don’t see the button? You already have the latest version.

Instagram is also testing locked reels that cannot be watched without entering secret codes or keywords to unlock and play, as another way to boost engagement.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/04/18/what-is-instagram-blend-how-does-it-work/

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