Key Takeaways for Your Influencer Strategy: Instagram’s New Friends Tab

Instagram rolled out a major update in August 2025, designed to make the platform more social and strengthen genuine connections. The all-new Friends tab in Reels changes not only how users discover content but also how brands need to approach influencer campaigns.

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The Big Picture: Instagram Prioritises Social Discovery

What is Instagram’s Friends tab and how does it work? It’s a new feature within Reels that highlights videos your friends have liked, commented on, or shared. Rather than relying solely on algorithmic suggestions, Instagram is using social proof - showing you content that people in your network actively endorse.

This goes beyond recommendations driven by machine learning. Instagram is now putting peer-to-peer engagement right at the centre of discoverability - echoing the power of old-school word-of-mouth, but at digital scale.

Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s Head, summed it up:

“We want Instagram to be not just a lean-back experience… but also a participatory one, helping you connect with the people you care about.”

Is the Friends tab only available on Reels? Yes - for now the feature is focused on Reels, reinforcing Instagram’s push towards short-form video as the primary format for discovery and engagement.

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How the Friends Tab Works

• Location: You’ll find it at the top of the Reels tab - just tap “Friends” to see what your network is engaging with.
• Content surfaced: Public Reels your friends have liked, commented on, reposted, or posted themselves.
• Privacy controls: New settings let you hide your likes, comments, and reposts from friends, or mute certain activity bubbles. You can fully opt out under “Activity in Friends tab”.
• Direct engagement: A reply bar makes it easy to jump straight into a DM conversation about a Reel.
• Blends and recommendations: You’ll also see content from “Blends” - shared recommendations you’ve set up with friends.

How will the Friends tab impact influencer marketing in 2025? The update puts authenticity and personal recommendations ahead of virality. Brands will increasingly benefit from partnering with influencers who create content that feels worth sharing - not overly polished, brand-first ads, but posts that people genuinely want to pass on to friends.

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Other Major August 2025 Instagram Features

• Repost button: You can now officially repost public Reels or feed posts, credited to the original creator. These appear in a new “Reposts” tab on your profile.
• Friend Map: An opt-in feature that lets you share your location with chosen friends. It makes coordinating meetups easier and shows where friends are posting from - always with strong privacy controls.

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Why Micro and Nano-Influencers Benefit Most

Why are micro and nano-influencers so important in this update? It comes down to engagement. Nano (1,000–10,000 followers) and micro-influencers (10,000–50,000 followers) usually achieve much higher interaction rates than celebrities. In the Friends tab, every like, save, or share from their audience carries disproportionate weight, making their influence especially powerful.

Should brands change their influencer marketing budgets because of this? Absolutely. Instead of sinking large sums into a single celebrity collaboration, brands should spread spend across a wider mix of smaller creators. This diversified approach is far more likely to spark share-worthy content that thrives in the Friends tab.

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What Type of Content Performs Best?

What type of content performs best in Instagram’s Friends tab? Content that is useful, funny, relatable, or inspiring. People are far more likely to send a helpful tip, a relatable meme, or a hilarious clip to their friends than they are to share a polished advert. In short, authentic wins every time.

This also changes how we measure impact. How can brands measure success with the Friends tab? Traditional numbers like impressions and reach matter less here. What counts are shares, saves, and comments - clear signals that content has resonated strongly enough for someone to recommend it to a friend.

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Key Strategic Recommendations

• Budget smarter: Reallocate spend towards micro- and nano-influencers to unlock more authentic shares and deeper impact.
• Leverage the reply bar: Encourage creators to spark conversations natively through the built-in reply bar, boosting DM engagement.
• Focus on shareability: Helpful tips, humour, and relatable stories are the content types most likely to be passed between friends.
• Respect privacy: Be clear about new controls and remind creators to respect audience preferences around visibility and opt-outs.

What mistakes should marketers avoid in the Friends tab era? The biggest risks are leaning into advert-style content, ignoring privacy, or failing to use the features built for engagement. Hard-sell, corporate posts won’t cut it - instead, brands should prioritise storytelling, humour, and genuine insight to stay shareable.

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Avoid Common Pitfalls

• Chasing “viral” with adverts: Overly polished, sales-heavy content won’t get traction in the Friends tab.
• Ignoring privacy concerns: Heavy-handed pushes for visibility could prompt users to opt out.
• Overlooking conversation: Failing to use features like Blends or the reply bar means missing chances for genuine interaction.