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It’s the time of the month where we embrace the final days of the Summer and gear up to welcome Fall. While the nights are getting longer and days turning short, the only thing consistent is the buzzing social media and its changing trends.
So what did you miss in August?
With bidding farewell to Twitter Fleets in less than a year and Yik Yak making a comeback four years after being shuttered (don’t know why!) the month of August was all about features, updates, and some much-requested changes.
Twitter Adds New Sign-in Options
By using your device info, you can now log in/sign in with Apple or Google ID. You won’t have to enter your password every time.
LinkedIn Acquires Jumprope
With the acquisition of the how-to and tutorial videos creation tool, LinkedIn will use Jumprope to expand video creation options and add another feather to its new ‘Creator Mode’.
WhatsApp Adds Disappearing Images and Videos
Just like Snapchat, now WhatsApp is giving you more control over the privacy of your chats by enabling photos and videos that disappear after they’ve been opened via View Once on WhatsApp.
Goodbye, Twitter Fleets
Twitter launched the Fleet option back in November 2020 as a transitory way for people to share their fleeting thoughts. But Fleets underperformed as a Twitter feature with few users using the feature.
TikTok Announces Shopify Shop Tab
Approved merchants with a TikTok business account will now be able to add a Shopify shopping tab as a mini-storefront within their profiles. This tab will be directly linked to their online stores. Shopify merchants now will have another way to directly promote their products within a popular social app.
‘Tiktok Stories’ Goes Into Testing
As Twitter gets rid of its version of ‘Stories’, other major social networks (including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat) enhance the support for the feature. As per Matt Navarra on Twitter, TikTok now jumps on the bandwagon as their version of Stories lands in the testing phase.
Native Video Meeting Option Added by LinkedIn
LinkedIn chats will now have a native video meetings option that will make it easier to switch to a video meeting right from within the chat experience. Members can connect virtually while maintaining the context of their existing conversation by adding video conferencing as a part of the experience.
Twitter Testing Removal of Specific Followers
Twitter is testing a new option that would enable you to remove a follower from your list without any hassle. A series of screenshots shared by Alessandro Paluzzi, if the feature goes live, you no longer would need to block a user to break the connection.
Dark Mode for YouTube Studio and a New Hashtag Suggestions
Giving the app a new look, the Youtube Studio dashboard will now be easy on the eyes with an alternate color palette for its dark mode.
YouTube also launched hashtag autocomplete suggestions, which will recommend relevant hashtags based on what’s popular at the moment.
WhatsApp to Support Chat Data Import Between Android and Ios
Importing Whatsapp data to your new device won’t be an issue anymore with Whatsapp’s new to-be-launched and much-requested feature to import data between Android and iOS devices.
This feature will reach newer Android phones first, but eventually will be available to all supported devices.
Source: Engadget
Farewell to Swipe-Up Links for Instagram Stories
Instagram plans to remove the swipe-up link from the Stories and replace it with a ‘Link’ sticker. Similar to other Stories stickers (Donations, Music, and Poll), the new Link is expected to give creators more control over the presentation.
New Tools Arrive on the 10th Birthday of Messenger
Facebook Messenger completes a decade, and to celebrate this milestone, they have introduced a few new features within Messenger. Here’s a rundown:
- New poll Games added into messenger
- ‘Share Contact’ is added under the ‘More Actions’ section making it easier for users to connect.
- A preview of connecting words with emojis as ‘Word Effects’.
- A new birthday gift option for payments in Messenger with a birthday chat theme.
- ‘Messenger is 10’ stickers launched.
TikTok Tests Longer Video Uploads
Tiktok is evolving with some major social media marketing tactics as they started initially with 15 seconds and eventually expanded the video lengths to 60 seconds. Last month they stretched it out up to 3 minutes. Now Tiktok is testing a longer video option for a few users (majorly with the latest version of the app) to create and upload videos for up to 5 minutes.
YikYak Makes a Comeback
The anonymous social media app YikYak made a comeback after being down for almost four years. The app allowed users to share thoughts anonymously with other users within a 5-mile radius. The shutdown was mainly due to abuse and cyberbullying. However, the reasons behind the resuscitation of the app are yet unknown.
‘Promote’ Ad Option by TikTok
Like Facebook’s Boost option, now Tiktokers can turn their organic videos into ads right away with the new ‘Promote’ option within the app. This feature is only available for business accounts.
Clubhouse Introduces Spatial Audio
The audio experience will now be more human and vibrant. The listeners could now detect individual speakers in a room more easily. This will greatly improve the user experience of the app and help it remain relevant in a highly competitive niche.
LinkedIn Shutting Down LinkedIn Stories
Following the footsteps of Twitter, LinkedIn also decided to shut down their Stories feature which they introduced last year. LinkedIn plans on incorporating their learnings from this experience into more detailed video tools for user profiles.
That’s All Folks for the Month of August.
We handpicked the major social media highlights to help you get on top of things quickly. The world of social media is evolving every day and with rapid changes in the feature set of the popular and emerging social media platforms, we will see some great innovation in user experience.
Stay tuned with Social Champ for more updates in the coming month. Cheers 😀
