Instagram is working on a new feature called Blend, designed to recommend Reel between us and a friend based on the most shared videos.
Alessandro Paluzzi, a renowned reverse engineering expert capable of identifying in advance the characteristics of social media in development, shared a screenshot on X that anticipates Blend's arrival on Instagram.
The innovative functionality is described by the company itself as capable of offering “Reels recommendations based on shared Reels and user interests“.
From what we can deduce, inviting a friend to participate in a “Blend”, Instagram would create a custom Reel feed designed for both participants.
In this guise, Blend would seem to recall Spotify's feature, introduced in 2021, that allows two people to combine their favorite songs into a shared playlist.
Group reel
The screenshot suggests that Blends will be privatewith the users involved being able to abandon them at any time, as could happen with any WhatsApp or Telegram channel.
The goal of this feature is to allow users to discover new Reels together, thus increasing interaction and time spent on the platform.
Using the information collected from the Reels exchanged via direct message, Instagram will actively propose content to be featured within the Blends.
Basically, it seems to be understood that the function will streamline the treatment that is commonly reserved for short videos on the platform: it will allow sharing and discovering Reel with someone else eliminating the usual practice of having to send them manually.
Extra function
As it is still being tested as little more than a prototype, this is currently unclear if and when Instagram decides to make the Blend feature public.
If introduced, it would offer Instagram Reel users a group engagement experience not available on TikTok, its main competitor.
Although the latter maintains a dominant position in the short video market, some recent problems could impact its future performance.
Over time, Instagram has tried to make its platform more similar to the Chinese social network, including the short video format; the transformation ended up making them substantially very similar.
However, the addition of “Blend” could give Instagram a small competitive advantage.
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