When you open Instagram, your feed will show not only your friends' photos, but also video content ("reels") that the app has algorithmically created

How you interact with these clips will influence what you see in the future What you see is unique to you and very different from the other 2 billion users of the app

But what if you could combine your Instagram preferences with those of other users? That seems to be what owners Meta is currently testing with an experimental feature called "Blend"

First spotted on X (formerly Twitter) by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, the attached screenshot shows an invitation to the feature

"Reel recommendations based on the reels you have shared with each other and your interest in your reel," the included text states It further explains that Blend is private between the two accounts generated and that users can exit at any time

This is quite similar to Spotify's feature of the same name, Spotify Blend, which will launch in 2021 and will allow up to 10 free and paid members to automatically integrate their favorite songs into a shared playlist with customized cover art and "taste match scores" for integration

Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that this feature is an internal prototype and is not currently being tested externally

Whether it will or not is unknown at this time While algorithmic blending of musical tastes on Spotify makes a lot of sense (as a soundtrack to a road trip, for example), Instagram scrolling is more of a one-person operation

People routinely share funny reels with their friends on Instagram, and that may be enough After all, the algorithm would already be learning from the reels found this way, and just because two people share their enthusiasm for, say, dog videos, doesn't mean they both like death metal

Still, there is no harm in developing this and seeing if it is something that a close friend or couple would begin to accept Importantly, this is a feature that TikTok does not have And anything Meta can do to make Instagram more competitive with the king of short-form video will surely be welcomed by shareholders