Latest social network features
Twitter release a slew of new features
Twitter has released a whole bunch of new features this month which you’ll fine below.
Following its acquisition by Twitter, Scroll is shutting down in about a month and will become part of Twitter Blue. Just when everyone else was getting going with social shopping in 2018, Twitter announced it wasn’t going down that route but it’s now playing catchup and is reportedly working on ‘live video shopping’.
The option to remove a follower without blocking them and without them being notified (also know as ‘soft block’) is now rolling out to everyone on web.
Twitter is working on making it easier to find and join Spaces. The rollout of the Spaces Tab to more people in English and iOS has started, with other languages and Android coming in the future.
Twitter has announced that their Twitter Blue subscription (it does seem it will be called that) feature is getting several new additions, including:
- Top articles: these will let you see the most-shared articles in your network over the last 24 hours and catch up on the conversations.
- Longer video uploads: you get a fast-loading, ad-free reading experience across a network of leading publishers.
- Undo tweet: time to make changes to a tweet before it goes live.
- T1 Labs: early access to see new features in testing before they’re made widely available.
- Ability to organise bookmarks into folders.
Twitter is testing an option that lets users subscribe to Revue newsletters through the Twitter app. You can already subscribe on desktop. See what this looks like and subscribe to my The Social Media Daily newsletter on twitter.com.
Twitter has made a number of improvements to its ads and is introducing a new ad format:
- Following the introduction of Carousel Ads last November, it has added to their functionality by allowing for multiple destinations within one Carousel block.
- Site visit optimisation: this is an improved buying model that finds and serves ads to people most likely to visit your website.
- Ad formats that identify opportunities to improve ad engagement: these include changes to usability, format details and calls to action.
- Measurement and reporting: you can actively test and build first-party measurement, following changes to privacy settings by Apple and Google.
- Twitter is testing a new ad format: The test is running on iOS and Android, and those who are part of the test will start to see ads after the first, third, or eighth reply to a tweet.
Twitter is expanding its test of upvotes and downvotes to more users globally. Right now there are two iterations being spotted by users. The first lets you upvote or downvote a reply with a new arrow button, and the other with a thumbs up or down.
Comment: The arrows look like a upload/download buttons which is confusing.Ticketed Spaces are coming to Android! The option to purchase tickets is rolling out to everyone in the US over the next few days.
The option to purchase tickets for Spaces is available for everyone on iOS and rolling out on Android globally. Topics Tagging in English is rolling out to everyone! tag up to three Topics to make your Spaces easier to find Twitter is adding the Twitter Spaces tab to its Android app.
Starting Monday 11 October, users who don’t explicitly link their Facebook and Instagram accounts in Facebook’s Accounts Center will be treated as two separate people.
Comment: Needless to say, this privacy-centric change could affect measurement and estimates for audience reach for advertisers, an area which Facebook hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory in the past.
Facebook is expanding the Live Audio rooms feature it launched in the US in June to a global audience. In addition to public figures and creators, Facebook is making the feature available to Groups as well.Live Audio rooms can be created via Facebook’s iOS or Android app. People will now be able to listen to Live Audio Rooms on desktop, but still have to use a mobile app for creation. Within Groups, admins can control who enters an audio room, with private and public options available.
Facebook is setting up a Concierge (Help via chat) service for Creators.
Comment: In practice, hopefully this will be open to everyone. If you have trouble contacting Facebook, I might be able to help.
Some LinkedIn Company Page Super Admins can now see hashtags associated with their company and content posted by employees.
There are several new features from Instagram this week.
Instagram is working on a new camera setting: Enable suggestions. Instagram is working to allow you to create a montage or a collage with photos from your gallery for your Story.
Instagram is launching Account Status, which will provide more info about what’s going on with your account, and whether anything you’ve posted is impacting your content distribution on Instagram.
Tip: Head to your Settings, click on ‘Account’ and then ‘Account Status’ to check to see if you have it yet.
Instagram is working on the ability to publish posts via the web.
Comment: Big shift from Instagram being a mobile app.
Instagram is working on Likes for Stories.
Instagram is testing a feature to notify users of outages or technical issues directly in the app. You’ll be notified of an issue in your Activity Feed, and again when the issue is resolved. The test will run in the US over the next few months.Instagram is working on the ability to add sound effects to Reels videos by adding 3 categories: Popular, Memes and Ambient.
Instagram is adding two new features to live streams. The first is Practice Mode, which will let you and any guest hosts join the LIVE before it begins broadcasting to followers. The second is a scheduling feature for live streams, which will let you notify your audience in advance. You can schedule a LIVE up to 90 days beforehand.Instagram now allows Reels Ads placements on the platform via the Instagram Marketing API. It is available on all current Marketing API versions, and doesn’t require an upgrade. Instagram says it also won’t require the use of a new endpoint.
Insight: Facebook’s APIs are used to build its functions into other platforms/tools, like Hootsuite and Social Pilot (aff link). For example, this enables you to setup ads with the same tool you use to schedule posts.
WhatsApp is beginning to roll out an option for users to create an end-to-end encrypted backup on iOS and Android.
Zoom
Zoom has updated its desktop client. Zoom’s new desktop client/app has one window with a new modern, clean look and feel. There are the usual icons to start, schedule and join a meeting and you will now find your Personal Meeting ID under New Meeting. In this expanded view, you’ll now see upcoming meeting details with a single click to start or join a meeting. For the first time, you can now customize your background picture. The Search feature is now more prominent making it easier to find contacts, messages or files.
Tip: You can click on your Profile photo to manage your settings, set your presence with a status message, and switch between Portrait (narrow) and Landscape (wide) view options
Learn how to improve how you look and sound on Zoom.
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