By Katy Howell | October 7, 2020
Cross-app communication, Instagram’s 10th birthday and Facebook’s new Groups feature – it’s been a busy week, so let’s dig in today’s Social Snapshot:
Facebook introduces cross-app communication between Messenger and Instagram
Facebook announced it will begin rolling out new functionality, allowing Instagram and Messenger users to communicate across apps, in addition to bringing a host of Messenger-inspired features to the Instagram inbox.
Find out more here.
Instagram’s 10th birthday introduces a Stories Map, custom icons and more
In a Christmas-esque, reverse giving fashion, Instagram is celebrating its 10th birthday with the launch of several new features, including a private “Stories Map,” offering a retrospective of the Stories you’ve shared over the last three years, a pair of well-being updates, and a IGTV Shopping update.
Find out more here.
Instagram expands shopping on IGTV, plans test of shopping on Reels
Instagram has announced the global expansion of Instagram Shopping across IGTV – offering creators and influencers a way to more directly monetise their user base, while also giving brands a way to sell merchandise to their followers. Instagram has said it will also soon begin testing shopping with Reels as well.
Learn more here.
Facebook Announces New Groups Features
Recently, Facebook Groups have seen a significant increase in usage – rising to 1.8 billion people using Facebook Groups every month. To help meet this growth, Facebook has announced a slew of new features, including automated moderation tools and new engagement options.
Learn more here.
TikTok numbers rise in Europe amid ongoing lockdowns
A quarter of all Britons now use TikTok every month, with 17 million hardcore users spending over an hour a day on the app. The growth is equivalent to a UK contingent that is almost half as large as Facebook’s, yet has been assembled in just three years. Neighbouring countries have also witnessed an explosion in interest with Germany, Spain and Italy drawing 10.7m, 9.8m and 8.8m users respectively.
Learn more here.
Twitter Expands Access to Voice Tweets, Re-Affirms Plans for Auto-Captions
Remember when we talked about Tweeting your voice a while ago? The hype all died down pretty quickly. Now, Twitter is rolling audio Tweets out to more iOS users, but no Android, and Twitter has reaffirmed its commitment to adding auto-captions to voice Tweets for the hard of hearing.
Learn more here.