In August, digital news takes a break. The big names in tech are preparing for their return to school and their batch of new features. However, it is also the time for the biggest social networks to roll out small improvements or test future features, before their large-scale distribution, or simply to take the pulse by scrutinizing user reactions. Discover in this article 20 social media news items that went unnoticed this summer!
YouTube: features being tested in all directions!
For YouTube, summer means experimentation. The streaming and VOD platform is indeed testing new features, which it will choose to deploy or not in the future. For example, Google’s network is experimenting with a timer, called “Sleep Delay”, allowing users to set a timing before interrupting the playback of a video, so that YouTube does not run in a vacuum while you sleep and an ad with poorly mixed sound does not wake you up. For the moment, this timer is only accessible to the platform’s Premium users for a test that will last until September 2, 2024.
At the same time, YouTube is also testing a feature similar to X’s Community Ratings. The network is actually sending out invitations to experiment with this option, allowing users to submit a rating if they find a video inaccurate or misleading. Other members will be able to review the rating to approve it or not. The latest news from this month of August on YouTube’s side is the experiment for creators of the integration of Gemini, Google’s AI, into YouTube Studio, with the aim of assisting users in their ideation efforts.
TikTok: partnerships and an AI video generator
TikTok is expanding its partnerships this summer. The Chinese social network has signed agreements with two giants: Warner Bros. and Amazon. The first of these contracts led to the appearance of a new feature, called Spotlight, which allows users to add a button to videos of film or series excerpts, in order to redirect users to a page dedicated to the work, where they can find information and related content. From this page, they will also be able to watch their film or series on an associated streaming platform. Spotlight is currently only available in the United States.
Still on the other side of the Atlantic, Amazon has partnered with TikTok (and Pinterest), it revealed Bloombergso that users of the social network can finalize their purchases directly on the application, without having to join the marketplace. Latest news for TikTok: its parent company, ByteDance, has put its AI video generator online. Currently only available in Chinese, the platform, called Jimeng, allows you to create video sequences of a few seconds using a simple prompt. A new feature that is intended to be integrated into TikTok in the future?
Instagram: A summer very inspired by Snapchat
On Instagram, some new features appeared this summer, including the extension of carousels to 20 publishable media or the highlighting of a new performance metric: Views. However, several rumors and information may have gone unnoticed. Officially, initially, Instagram launched a public test of its new feature called “Friend Map”. This is a map that displays the location of your contacts, as Snapchat has been doing for many years. This map will display where your friends are, or where they have been, with the possibility of adding notes for each location visited. It will only be shared with your group of close friends or your mutual subscribers.
Two pieces of information from insiders also occupied the Instagram news this August. Accustomed to this type of revelations, Alessandro Paluzzi revealed that the social network is working on a system preventing screenshots for all temporary messages exchanged, in a move also inspired by Snapchat. The same Alessandro Paluzzi also noted that Instagram was thinking about moving the Highlightsor Featured Stories, within a new tab on your profile grid. A change that brought this option closer to how it works on… Snapchat.
Meta: between dubious advertising, AI and the development of Threads
Meta started August with what it surely considers good news: Threads has reached 200 million active users worldwide. It was Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, who announced the news on Meta’s latest social network. To celebrate, Threads launched three new features: insights for creators, with statistical tools, post scheduling and multiple drafts. The platform is still struggling to establish itself, especially in the face of Elon Musk’s X, which it wanted to overshadow. Perhaps AI will give it a new boost? In any case, Meta continues to explore the possibilities of artificial intelligence and the potential of celebrities. After abandoning the idea of creating AI avatars that look like stars, Mark Zuckerberg’s teams are looking into the possibility of having vocal clones of celebrities with whom it would be possible to exchange on its networks.
But Meta has especially made headlines for a strange secret agreement that the firm is said to have made with Google, it has revealed. The Financial Times. According to the American media, the two tech giants have agreed to broadcast Instagram ads on YouTube aimed at teenagers. Meta is said to have deliberately targeted its promotions at teenagers, in order to reach an audience more focused on TikTok, while Google is said to have “concealed his intention in his reports”which would mean that there is also an unspecified ad targeting option on YouTube that includes younger users. Funny concoction! More transparent partnership: Meta has signed a multi-year deal with Universal Music, with the aim of expanding “creative and commercial opportunities for artists and songwriters” of the record company on Mark Zuckerberg’s networks, writes The Figaro.
X, LinkedIn and Reddit also on the front lines
X-rated advertisers, an endangered species?
As advertisers increasingly flee X, leading to a significant drop in revenue (-53% between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024), Elon Musk’s social network announced in a post that it would free its Premium+ subscribers from advertising. Indeed, users paying the modest sum of €19.20 per month will no longer be inundated with increasingly misleading and dubious ads. And they will now be able to generate images thanks to X’s AI, Grok, which has unveiled a new model. The chatbot is in fact equipped with a Premium tool to create visuals, without any real moral restrictions…
But the billionaire has – apparently – other worries to worry about: his platform is the target of nine new complaints in Europe, concerning the non-consensual use of user data for training its AI, Grok. The EU also warned X before the broadcast on the platform of the interview between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The billionaire responded to European Commissioner Thierry Breton by… an insulting meme.
On LinkedIn, companies will be able to sponsor a newsletter
After launching sponsored newsletters for company pages earlier this summer, LinkedIn has decided to expand this feature. Newsletters created by other users will now be able to be sponsored by brands. While this currently only concerns “opinion leaders” on the professional social network, it will nevertheless allow companies to put their stamp on popular newsletters located in their niche.
AI-assisted search tested on Reddit
Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman has announced to his major investors that he plans to test AI-powered search results on the platform. The model would aim to generate summaries of results and offer content recommendations. To do this, Reddit is expected to use a combination of in-house and third-party technologies. As a reminder, the platform signed agreements with OpenAI and Google earlier in 2024 to create AI-powered features for Reddit users.
