Meta Platforms has introduced a new Instagram Reels feature called Blend that lets users customize a video feed for themselves and friends. The invite-only Blends can be built for a single friend or within a group chat. Once created, the feed is refreshed each day with new content, with all members able to add material. The idea is to let friends explore and discover content together while adding a new interactive element that harkens back to social media’s roots, cutting through the recent trend of viral influencer content and ads. Earlier this year it was reported that the new feature was being developed.

“Once you join or accept a Blend invite, you will be able to browse through reels picked for each person in the chat,” TechCrunch reports, adding that “when someone in the group reacts to a reel, Instagram will notify you so you can keep a convo going in the DM (direct messaging) chat.”

Blend was announced by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri in an Instagram post that explains, “to start a blend with a friend or group of friends, go to a DM and click the Blend icon. Everyone in the DM group has to opt-in to participate.”

“For those sick of the same old video feeds on Instagram, TikTok and others, this new feature could be a great way to expand your horizons and find things that people you like (presumably, if you’re messaging with them on Instagram) enjoy watching,” Tom’s Guide opines.

Instagram has been “testing and tweaking the feature for more than a year,” reports Social Media Today, explaining that “rather than sending Reels to each other (which, it’s worth noting, has become the most common form of interaction in the app), the Blend feed will show you all of the Reels that you and your friend(s) would be shown individually, within a single stream.”

The result is a “range of interests influencing your IG feed” merging into stream curated exclusively by friends, notes Social Media Today, emphasizing overlapping sweet spots for greater engagement. Conversely, the general feed that enables “everyone to just see a full stream of the same, at any time, feels less personal.”

Blend helps distinguish Instagram from TikTok, “one of Instagram’s biggest rivals,” which doesn’t offer such a feature, TechCrunch points out (noting that Spotify does have a similar capability dating from 2021 that has the same name).