This week was great in terms of social media developments and news. Several new features and tools were introduced to various platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It was also great because platforms had their Q2 reports finalized, and they presented them to the public as well. There was lots of other exciting stuff which happened. The article that follows gives an overview of all these evolutions:
Facebook publicizes its Q2 report
It seems as though the platform is attempting to drive public attention away from the fact that its primary app usage is falling rapidly. According to the report, its community has grown to over 2.5 billion users. However, this stat covers all of its other applications as well, such as Instagram and Facebook Lite (read: combined users).
Facebook Watch Party is on an official roll out
Facebook was experimenting with a new video feature, called the Watch Party, in groups. This tool allowed group admins and moderators to share any public video with the members of their group. The latter could comment on the content while watching it live. With this new tool, multiple co-hosts would have the ability to add multiple videos to the queue, and viewers can suggest videos.
Facebook introduces new features to improve team collaboration on Workplace
According to blog post, Facebook has launched some new features to help make a friendly environment in Workplace. These features will allow workers to chat, know each other's birthday, have an admin control and share personal details.
Tap react for Facebook stories
Apparently, the domain is testing with a new tool which allows users to tap on a Facebook story to react to it. Since only a few people reported the ability to carry out this activity on their applications, it can be assumed that the testing scale is still considerably small. When this feature would roll out to masses is yet unknown.
Facebook buys Redkix
Recently, Facebook acquired Redkix, which is an email startup, aiming at combining email, messaging and calendar together. It is speculated that the domain did so so as to improve its own communication features, so that it may be in a position to compete with Stack.
Twitter produces a Business Playbook
With this new feature, Twitter hopes to answer and share answers to several frequently asked questions by agencies and their clients, on how to run Twitter ads and where Twitter fits into an overall client strategy.
Twitter reports that it prioritizes the health of its platform
According to the Q2 report of Twitter, the active users for the domain had fallen greatly. This, the platform attributes to the steps it has taken to ensure the health of its online community. Only recently, Twitter has taken several steps to tackle the growing instances of racism, hate speech and misogyny on the domain. In the process, it blocked several thousand users guilty of such acts. It has also introduced several new requirements for Twitter API developers. This means that new applications will now be created in the new app management portal on Developer, which in return demands an approved Developer account. Twitter CEO reports that the management and he are more concerned about the long-term growth of the platform, and not the short-term active users.
LinkedIn adds voice notes' feature to the application
LinkedIn introduced the ability to send voice messages, of up to 1 minute, to its domain. This can be done by merely pressing the microphone icon and recording an audio message.
This new tool is rolling out to iOS users currently. Android users will soon have access to it.
Instagram plans to show online status
In an attempt to allow friends to chat more, Instagram announced that it will now notify its users when their friends / other followers are online, via green dots, which would appear in front of the names, in various parts of the application, like the message inbox and friend list.
YouTube tests a new Explore feature
This testing is being done with 1% of the iOS users currently. According to reports, this experimentation would allow expanded video recommendations and channels to appear to users. People would be able to see suggestions which they normally do not. In many ways, it would be similar to Instagram's Explore tab.
YouTube expands virtual reality app to Samsung
Good news for Samsung Gear VR users! YouTube is now rolling out its virtual reality application to them. With this, people would have access to features which would allow them the opportunity of watching videos together (while being at different places, of course) and chat as well.
Snapchat opens private ads marketplace
According to reports, Snapchat will offer 100 brands, across the U.S., U.K and Australia, the prime opportunity of posting unskippable ad placements. This would seem like a TV style advertisement show in the Discover section of the application. One of the cherry-picked brands in Buzzfeed.
Snapchat waves Snapcash goodbye
It is reported that Snapchat's service Snapcash will shut down by the 30th of August. Although it has existed for the past 4 years, Snapcash has been quite unpopular. This is normally attributed to the fact that other platforms, similar to Snapcash, like PayPal, existed, and functioned better.
Facebook publicizes its Q2 report
It seems as though the platform is attempting to drive public attention away from the fact that its primary app usage is falling rapidly. According to the report, its community has grown to over 2.5 billion users. However, this stat covers all of its other applications as well, such as Instagram and Facebook Lite (read: combined users).
Facebook Watch Party is on an official roll out
Facebook was experimenting with a new video feature, called the Watch Party, in groups. This tool allowed group admins and moderators to share any public video with the members of their group. The latter could comment on the content while watching it live. With this new tool, multiple co-hosts would have the ability to add multiple videos to the queue, and viewers can suggest videos.
Facebook introduces new features to improve team collaboration on Workplace
According to blog post, Facebook has launched some new features to help make a friendly environment in Workplace. These features will allow workers to chat, know each other's birthday, have an admin control and share personal details.
Tap react for Facebook stories
Apparently, the domain is testing with a new tool which allows users to tap on a Facebook story to react to it. Since only a few people reported the ability to carry out this activity on their applications, it can be assumed that the testing scale is still considerably small. When this feature would roll out to masses is yet unknown.
Facebook buys Redkix
Recently, Facebook acquired Redkix, which is an email startup, aiming at combining email, messaging and calendar together. It is speculated that the domain did so so as to improve its own communication features, so that it may be in a position to compete with Stack.
Twitter produces a Business Playbook
With this new feature, Twitter hopes to answer and share answers to several frequently asked questions by agencies and their clients, on how to run Twitter ads and where Twitter fits into an overall client strategy.
Twitter reports that it prioritizes the health of its platform
According to the Q2 report of Twitter, the active users for the domain had fallen greatly. This, the platform attributes to the steps it has taken to ensure the health of its online community. Only recently, Twitter has taken several steps to tackle the growing instances of racism, hate speech and misogyny on the domain. In the process, it blocked several thousand users guilty of such acts. It has also introduced several new requirements for Twitter API developers. This means that new applications will now be created in the new app management portal on Developer, which in return demands an approved Developer account. Twitter CEO reports that the management and he are more concerned about the long-term growth of the platform, and not the short-term active users.
LinkedIn adds voice notes' feature to the application
LinkedIn introduced the ability to send voice messages, of up to 1 minute, to its domain. This can be done by merely pressing the microphone icon and recording an audio message.
This new tool is rolling out to iOS users currently. Android users will soon have access to it.
Instagram plans to show online status
In an attempt to allow friends to chat more, Instagram announced that it will now notify its users when their friends / other followers are online, via green dots, which would appear in front of the names, in various parts of the application, like the message inbox and friend list.
YouTube tests a new Explore feature
This testing is being done with 1% of the iOS users currently. According to reports, this experimentation would allow expanded video recommendations and channels to appear to users. People would be able to see suggestions which they normally do not. In many ways, it would be similar to Instagram's Explore tab.
YouTube expands virtual reality app to Samsung
Good news for Samsung Gear VR users! YouTube is now rolling out its virtual reality application to them. With this, people would have access to features which would allow them the opportunity of watching videos together (while being at different places, of course) and chat as well.
Snapchat opens private ads marketplace
According to reports, Snapchat will offer 100 brands, across the U.S., U.K and Australia, the prime opportunity of posting unskippable ad placements. This would seem like a TV style advertisement show in the Discover section of the application. One of the cherry-picked brands in Buzzfeed.
Snapchat waves Snapcash goodbye
It is reported that Snapchat's service Snapcash will shut down by the 30th of August. Although it has existed for the past 4 years, Snapcash has been quite unpopular. This is normally attributed to the fact that other platforms, similar to Snapcash, like PayPal, existed, and functioned better.
Snap Inc. to link businesses and popular content makers
With Snap Inc.'s new program, businesses will now be able to connect with the most popular content makers on board for advertisement purposes. For now, only a few hand picked people, like Cyrene Q, would be able to collaborate to produce ads. It is estimated that these individuals will be able to make thousands of dollars in the process.
Other Web and Tech Stories:
Other Web and Tech Stories:
- Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon and Other Big Names Failed To Protect Us From Weak Passwords
- YouTube Now Has 1.9 Billion Monthly Logged-In Users
- "Not Secure" Warning On Your Favorite Website? Here's The Reason Why Google Chrome Is Alerting You
- New LinkedIn Tool Which Notifies Users of Available Job Opportunities
- Spyware Campaign's Malicious Deeds Affect Over 11 Million Android, iOS and Web Users by Stealing Private Information.
