In this installment of “What’s new on social media platforms”, we’re checking out a few new and upcoming features on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Live Video Late this summer, Facebook launched its entrance into the live video app market with a brand new video app but only for public figures with massive followings. It is called “Mentions.”
On Friday, however, the social network site announced that is has started rolling out the function to all verified accounts and through the FB app directly.
All those users need to do is type up an update and hit the live icon.
Earlier this month, Facebook also announced it is testing Live video to a test group of regular users with iPhones.
One of our editors is among the select lucky few to test it out and she’s having a blast with it.
“The reasons people wanted it were quite different from celebrities,” Julie Zhou, product design director at Facebook, told Verge. “It was really more about inviting friends and families into special moments in people’s lives. People might broadcast from Facebook during a child’s birthday party, she said, or after reaching the summit of a mountain.”
Because Live feed interferes with the Facebook’s algorithm, it will only go to close friends. This is unlike general live video apps like Periscope, Meerkat and Blab which broadcast to all followers.
The recent update to iOS also allows photo grids and collages. Before, photos streamed through a feed one a time, but those who update to the latest version of the app on their mobile devices will have the option of creating collages too.
Photo Roll Facebook now also auto populates your phones latest photos to the area right below the status update bar but only you can see those photos. It’s still quite jarring to see, sometimes very private or intimate photos, appear on Facebook even in that very limited capacity. Yikes!
Twitter.
Larger Photos –Photos that are tweeted now appear much richer and larger than before, Twitter announced on December 7.
This new addition is great for activating more engagement.
No more hyperlinks
We also noticed recently that you no longer need to add the “http://” part of a web address in a tweet in order for Twitter to hyperlink to the website.
Before you needed the hyperlink characters or a link shortner.
Now meta data has been added so you can use an anchor text alone.
Android Police reports that Instagram is slowly rolling out the ability for users to toggle between multiple accounts without having to log back out and in, as is the case currently.
One user shared her image. This is a game changer, especially for social media managers and those who have several brands.
That’s what we’ve spotted. What other new features are you seeing on your favorite social media app?
