How a Brand Can Use Friend's Reels Tab on Instagram: A 2026 Guide
A practical look at Instagram’s Friends’ Reels tab and what brands should know about creating Reels that spark comments and conversations.
When Instagram added the Friends’ Reels tab a year ago, it didn’t make much noise. There were no big announcements, no creator challenges built around it, no obvious promise of reach. Yet quietly, the platform introduced something it had been moving toward for years: a space where discovery is driven not by algorithms, but by people you already know.
For brands, this changes how Reels can work. Friends’ Reels doesn’t reward polish or scale but relevance, timing, and reactions.
What Is the Friends’ Reels Tab?
Friends’ Reels sits next to the main Reels feed on Instagram. Instead of showing content recommended by the platform, it displays Reels that were liked or commented on by people you follow. This is somewhat similar to the main Instagram feed that is now split into the Following, Favorites, and algorithmically driven feed.
In other words, the signal isn’t “Instagram thinks you’ll like this.” The signal is that someone you know interacted with this, so you might be interested to take a look.
Instagram reinforces that behavior by pushing the reply bar to the front of the interface. The app actively encourages you to respond to your friend’s interaction, such as commenting back, replying in DMs, reposting, or continuing a conversation that has already started elsewhere.
This tab has been live for about a year, and its function has remained consistent: spark engagement through social context rather than volume.
How Reels End Up in Friends’ Reels
The Friends’ Reels feed reacts to two actions: likes and comments. Saves, reposts, and watch time don’t surface content here. That detail matters: a Reel can perform modestly in the main feed and still show up frequently in Friends’ Reels if it triggers visible reactions from real followers.
This is one reason highly produced brand videos often miss this tab entirely. They may be watched, but they’re rarely interacted with. Meanwhile, a simple clip that invites a response (agreement, disagreement, recognition, provocation) travels further in this space.
Why Friends' Reels Tab Is Useful for Brands
Friends’ Reels operates on trust by association. If a Reel appears there, it comes with an implicit endorsement: someone I know thought this was worth reacting to.
For brands, this creates a different kind of visibility:
- The viewer is already primed to engage, not just watch
- The interaction often continues in comments or private messages
- The content feels conversational rather than promotional
A coffee brand posting a Reel about brewing tips may struggle to stand out in the main Reels feed. The same Reel, liked by a barista someone follows, carries more weight in Friends’ Reels. The context changes how the content is received.
Content That Works Best in Friends’ Reels
Friends’ Reels favors content that feels personal, funny, and relatable.
Behind-the-scenes clips perform well here, especially when they show process rather than results. A SaaS company sharing a short Reel about a feature that didn’t make it into production is more likely to get comments than a clean product demo.
Opinion-based Reels also travel further. For example, a video editor posting “Most brands cut their videos too late, and here’s why” invites agreement or pushback. Either reaction is enough to surface the Reel in Friends’ Reels.
Educational content can work, but only when it leaves room for response. A Reel that explains everything rarely gets comments. A Reel that ends mid-thought or frames the insight as debatable often does.
Memes are another way to boost engagement quickly. Most people open their Instagram app and land on the Reels tab because they want to escape from their daily routines, and funny content often posted as Reels gives them that. Every industry and niche has jokes and humor; you just need to find yours and make a few Reels showcasing something funny and relatable. For instance, social media agencies often make videos ridiculing the most common stereotypes about social media managers and marketers. Even if such clips get the biggest response from their colleagues, the overall reach of their account is growing, thus allowing them to become visible to more people, including potential customers and employees.
You’ll see how ‘repostable’ such clips might be!
What do people love to watch on social media? Memes, unboxing clips, jokes, reactions... In fact, unboxing ranks among the top 20 most-watched, alongside ASMR, product reviews, reactions (in comedy), and challenges.
How Brands Can Encourage Friends’ Reels Visibility
There is no direct way to “post for Friends’ Reels.” The only lever is engagement, and that has to come from people, not tactics.
The opening seconds matter. Reels that start with a clear point of view or observation give viewers something to react to immediately. Questions help, but only when they sound like something a person would actually ask another person.
For example, “Would you use this feature?” feels like a survey. “Why do so many people still edit videos this way?” might be a better opening, since it feels like a conversation starter.
💡Take a look at the example below: even a product or a how-to video might feel relatable and funny thanks to the right (in this case, provocative) opening:
Some brands also see results by involving employees or close collaborators, not as amplifiers, but as participants. A thoughtful comment from someone connected to the brand often sparks further replies, which increases the chance of the Reel appearing in Friends’ Reels feeds.
Friends’ Reels and Community-Led Growth
Unlike the main Reels feed, Friends’ Reels doesn’t scale endlessly. Its strength is density, not reach.
This makes it especially relevant for brands building smaller, focused communities: niche tools, local services, creator products, educational platforms. In these cases, repeated exposure among the same network of followers builds familiarity faster than broad discovery.
A design tool brand, for instance, might notice that the same Reel keeps resurfacing in Friends’ Reels among designers who follow each other. The Reel becomes part of an ongoing discussion rather than a one-off post.
Repurposing Long-Form Content for Friends’ Reels
Long-form videos, such as podcasts, interviews, webinars, often contain moments that invite reaction, but those moments are rarely the highlights.
Friends’ Reels favors clips that feel unfinished in a good way: a strong claim, a sharp observation, a sentence that invites a reply. There’s no need for polished, professional production.
This is where tools like AI Video Cut fit naturally. Instead of pulling “best moments,” brands can extract segments where someone hesitates, challenges a common idea, makes a viral-ready joke, or frames a problem without fully resolving it. These clips don’t explain everything. They give viewers a reason to respond.
A podcast clip that ends with “This is where most brands get stuck” is more likely to generate comments than one that neatly wraps up a point.
The most common mistake is treating Friends’ Reels as another distribution channel.
Highly polished ads, trend-driven templates, and generic motivational content rarely trigger the kind of interaction this tab relies on. Comment bait is just as ineffective. Users can usually tell when a question exists only to inflate engagement.
Friends’ Reels rewards content that feels like it was made for people, not performance metrics.
How to Measure Reels’ Success Beyond Views
Friends’ Reels tab rarely delivers high view counts. That doesn’t mean it’s underperforming.
Brands should pay attention to:
- Comment depth rather than quantity
- Replies that move into DMs
- Repeat interactions from the same users
A Reel seen by 2,000 people can be more valuable than one seen by 50,000 if it leads to conversations, follow-ups, or referrals.
If your content gives people something to react to, and a reason to attach their name to that reaction, it has a place in this feed. If it doesn’t, no amount of optimization will push it there.
Good to Know
Can brands directly post to the Friends’ Reels tab?
No. Content appears there only when someone likes or comments on a Reel. Brands have no direct control over placement.
Is Friends’ Reels useful for new accounts?
Less so. The tab relies on existing social connections. It works best for brands that already have an engaged follower base.
Do comments matter more than likes?
Both matter, but comments tend to spark follow-up interactions, which increases visibility within connected networks.
Should brands change their Reels strategy because of this tab?
Not entirely. Friends’ Reels works best as a complement to a broader Reels approach, not a replacement.
Can AI tools help optimize content for Friends’ Reels?
Yes, when used to identify moments that invite reaction rather than moments that simply perform well.