We Reach Social’s Monday Mashup #771
This week, X is tackling spam through a mix of approaches including removing Communities and upping the price to post using its API. Meta has improved account management by granting new access for third party platforms and making it easier to login to all your Meta accounts.
Meanwhile, Bieberchella lives on, inspiring this week’s word of the week (and a host of TikToks) – Hallelujah. And, #Booktok girlies unite – Alex Warren is officially team Xaden. Read on for more social media news.
Instagram launches Instants app
Image Credit screenshot from Google Play via TechCrunch
Instagram is testing a new app in Spain and Italy called “Instants”. The app lets users send disappearing photos and videos that can be viewed once and only last 24 hours. The only editing you can do is add text to the image and you can’t upload pics from your camera roll. Instagram is testing multiple versions of Instants including an in-app Instagram feature and the standalone app.
X shuts down Communities
X is shutting down its Communities feature due to too many spam posts and it becoming too difficult to manage. The feature was popular when it launched in 2021, when the platform was known as Twitter, but now less than 0.4% of users actually use the feature. Despite the low usage, 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on X, originated on Communities.
TikTok lets creators edit keywords
Image credit: Jonah Manzano/Threads
TikTok creators can now add and remove keywords to their clips to help get their videos on user searches. TikTok automatically adds keywords to posts based on popular searches but now creators can edit these. Creators can also block certain keywords. TikTok will still maintain oversight over any suggestions, so creators don’t add non-relevant terms to their videos.
Meta improves account management
GIF Credit: Meta
Meta is revamping its Meta Account management system to make it easier for users to sign in and manage accounts. The update will roll out over the next year and includes users being able to use one password and log in across all accounts. I know what you’re thinking – that’s the opposite advice the office IT team has told us for the last 15 years! Well, Meta reassures that the log-ins will be protected with Passkeys, multi-factor authentication and log in alerts.
X lets Grok control your feed
X has announced that Premium subscribers on iOS will have early access to its AI chatbot, Grok taking charge of their timeline. The new feature allows users to pin topics and Grok will use them to pull in related posts on your feed. The feature is coming to Android users “very soon.”
Meta boosts third party features for Instagram
Meta is updating Instagram’s API to give third party platforms more capabilities. These updates include: third party platforms being able to directly publish organic posts with paid partnership labels, new metrics added to the Instagram Graph API, aggregated metrics for crossposted content and the ability to like and unlike posts and comments through the API.
X increases price to use its API
X has upped the cost to post links using its API from $0.01to $0.20. X has also increased the posting price to $0.15 per post. The change comes in response to the high volume of spam posts on the platform. The news has not gone down well with publishers – obviously – with Techmeme leading the way by stopping posting links altogether.
🔥Trending this week 🔥
🎧 Put yourself in her shoes with this luteal phase experience.
👻 Creators are listing out their biggest fears as ‘horror movies’ in this TikTok trend
📚 The booktok girlies are not only excited about the new Fourth Wing book announcement but also that Alex Warren’s wife made him wear this T-shirt on stage to sing ‘Ordinary’…
🎤 This TikTok trend turning messages into AI songs is still going strong.
🙏 Word of the week is hallelujah
😢 Fake apology videos as announcements are still racking up numbers.
💭 Creators are still reminiscing about Coachella in this daydream, flashback format.
In other news
🗺️ Snapchat rolls out “Place Loyalty” feature.
💬 X launches XChat on iOS.
📱YouTube cuts back on push notifications for unengaged subscribers.
✍️ Meta gives parents access to teens’ AI queries.
🤖 Instagram adds new AI tool to Edits.
✅ LinkedIn adds option to filter replies by verified users.
💬 Threads launches Live Chats for the NBA playoffs.
🤖 Meta expands access to AI business assistant.