Table of Contents
TikTok
Scheduled Posts: Plan Your TikToks Ahead of Time TikTok is introducing a scheduling feature that allows creators to plan and post content at the best times without constantly being on their phones. The downside is that once a TikTok is scheduled, you can’t edit the video, captions, or scheduled time. Still, it’s a great tool for maintaining a consistent posting schedule.
YouTube 2.0 TikTok is stepping up to compete with YouTube by testing 60-minute video uploads. This allows creators to produce more in-depth and varied content, offering more flexibility to engage with their audience.
Image Search in TikTok Shop: Simplifying Product Discovery TikTok is improving its shopping experience with a new image search feature. Users can now upload a photo to find similar products in the TikTok Shop, making it easier to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Virtual Characters The platform’s new Symphony marketing management feature allows brands to use virtual influencers to sell products through in-app live streams. These digital avatars come in two formats: Stock Avatars and Custom Avatars. While it might seem unusual in the West, digital avatars are already popular in the East, with apps like Douyin helping brands sell thousands of dollars worth of goods daily.
Using digital avatars is also very cost-effective, requiring minimal expenses for continuous advertising. Chinese tech startups and major companies offer deep fake creation services for e-commerce live streaming, providing a few minutes of sample video for about $1,000.
Instagram has been active this month, introducing new features to enhance its platform.
‘Lately’ Feature: Showcasing Your Latest Stories Instagram is testing a new ‘Lately’ feature that creates a highlight feed on your profile, showing your story uploads from the past week. This lets your profile visitors see what stories you post and keeps those memories visible beyond 24 hours.
Send a Preview: Get Feedback on Your Reels Instagram is testing a “send a preview for reels” feature, allowing you to share a preview with friends for feedback before posting. You can also send previews to a selection of non-followers to gather more feedback and improve your content.
Unskippable Ads: Introducing ‘Ad Break’ in Your Feed Instagram is experimenting with unskippable ads called ‘ad break’ in your feed. These ads prevent users from scrolling past them, aiming to maximize ad engagement. While this might be frustrating for some, it’s clear that Instagram is focusing on boosting ad interactions.
Text Overlays: Enhancing Carousel Posts with Creative Text Instagram is testing text overlays for carousel posts, allowing you to add text to individual images and reformat the display. This opens up new content possibilities, like ‘How to’ guides and explainer posts. This simple yet intriguing update offers creative opportunities for creators.
Instagram advises against ‘engagement baiting’ Instagram recently released a video advising creators and brands to avoid using answer-specific calls to action (CTAs) in their video clips. They stated that if content explicitly asks for engagement through shares, comments, tags, or other actions, it won’t be recommended. The post was quickly removed, leaving users confused about the importance of this advice. This isn’t entirely new, as Instagram has always been against engagement-baiting. However, it could affect those using marketing automation tools that prompt engagement through automated triggers. Hopefully, more clarity will be provided soon.
ByteDance
ByteDance has quietly released a new app called Whee, which resembles Instagram. Available for download on Android, Whee offers a more personal approach, allowing users to share photos with friends instead of the public, unlike Instagram’s focus.
ByteDance’s release of Whee has surprised many, especially since they recently launched TikTok Notes, which also takes inspiration from Instagram. It seems ByteDance might be adopting a Meta-like strategy, releasing separate apps to test their popularity before potentially integrating features into existing apps.
YouTube
YouTube is testing a new feature called community notes, which lets users add their own notes to videos to provide “relevant, timely, and easy-to-understand context.” This feature is similar to X’s Community Notes. The notes will be visible beneath a video, and an algorithm will evaluate their helpfulness, accuracy, and neutrality before approval. The testing is currently available on mobile in the U.S., with plans to expand globally.
Apple
AI-generated iOS update Apple is planning to introduce AI-generated emojis called “Genmoji” in their next iOS update. This feature will let you create custom emojis from a photo or a picture in your camera roll using AI, making it easier to find the perfect emoji for any moment.
Advertising lawsuit Google faces a £13.6 billion lawsuit over its alleged dominance in the online advertising market. The case, filed by Ad Tech Collective Action LLP, claims that Google acted anti-competitively, causing UK online publishers to lose money. Despite Alphabet, Google’s parent company, trying to dismiss the lawsuit, the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London has allowed it to go to trial. The claim centers on Google’s alleged abuse of its dominance in web search, which supposedly reduces the revenue websites earn. It took eighteen months to reach this stage, so it will be a while before any resolution is reached.
