Another month, another list of updates from our favourite social media platforms. Let’s catch up on what’s new and what’s coming…
Instagram Broadcast Channels officially rolled out to UK users
Public, one-to-many messaging tools have become popular recently and Instagram are jumping on the trend!
Having originally tested Broadcast Channels in the US, they are now expanding to the UK.
Broadcast Channels allow creators to engage directly with their audience by quickly sending them messages that they can react but not respond to.
TikTok launch in-stream shopping
TikTok are focused on social commerce again as they test a bunch of new in-stream shopping features for US-based users including a Shop tab in the main TikTok feed.
Both TikTok and Instagram have tried testing Shopping features before in Western countries without success, despite proving popular in other countries like China and Indonesia.
Google search results on TikTok
We’ve heard for a long time that TikTok has become the go-to search engine for Gen-Z, and in a strange twist it seems now that TikTok are testing a new feature which displays Google listings.
It was spotted by Radu Oncescu spotted that the TikTok search results page included a link to search Google for the same query.
YouTube launch Create Beta app
YouTube have launched a free mobile app for video editing called YouTube Create (Beta).
Having originally been tested in India and Singapore, app access is now expanding to the US, UK, France, Germany, South Korea and Indonesia. Currently, the app is only available on android devices with plans to launch an iOS app in 2024.
Features include audio cleanup to remove background noise, auto-captions, filters, effects, transitions, royalty-free songs and sound effects, as well as direct publishing to YouTube.
YouTube A/B testing for thumbnails
We all know how important thumbnails are on YouTube, so it’s no surprise that being able to A/B test thumbnails is one of the most requested features.
And now it seems like YouTube is working on a Test & Compare feature that will allow creators to upload up to 3 video thumbnails to see what performs best.
Facebook introduce multi-profiles
You can now add up to 4 profiles to your Facebook account and switch between them without logging out. Why? Well, you might want to have separate profiles for different instances – friends, family, business and work for example.
Other social media updates
- Instagram to show history of links you’ve recently visited
- Instagram testing new feature allowing you to control who sees what posts and Reels you’ve liked
- Instagram tests having Location Tags in Notes
- Instagram now allows you to categorise important customer interactions in the DMs by adding labels
- YouTube introduce a new tab in analytics to show you data from multiple pieces of content to give you more information about what content and formats perform best
- YouTube are simplifying ad controls on new uploads, to take the guesswork out of which ad formats to use
- YouTube to show “video shelf” for channel memberships, which will display thumbnails for members-only videos that are available to showcase exclusive content
- Google Podcasts is going away in 2024, following the global rollout of podcasts in YouTube Music
- LinkedIn recently added the branded partnership label, and now they’ve launched a branded content library where you can find a history of brand collaboration posts from others
- Elon Musk has mentioned that he may soon make X/Twitter a paid platform for all users
- Threads (Meta’s version of X/Twitter) has continued to seen a decline despite temporary boost after desktop launch
- AI bots are able to solve reCAPTCHA
- Canva launches Magic Studio with a collection of AI tools