Instagram’s Testing a New Stories UI
Instagram has been testing a new Stories UI that essentially hides Stories posts beyond a specific frame count for the past few weeks. Some Stories now only show the first three frames, with a little ‘Show all’ prompt in the top left corner of the screen. That would be simple to overlook, which could mean that if you publish more than three frames to your Story, the latter ones are far less likely to be viewed. This will be automatically played.
Stories would be displayed with the frame count at the bottom of the screen, indicating that users can swipe left to see more — and perhaps Instagram believes that displaying too many frames will be off-putting, taking users out of the vertical swiping experience. This could be related to Instagram’s Reels-first strategy as it competes with TikTok. Instagram is also testing a new full-screen main feed with feed articles, stories, and video content for a more immersive experience.
This significant change will have an immediate influence on how social media content makers create material for the network.
What Can N.F.T.s Do for Dead Artists?
Museums and artist families are experimenting with putting artists’ works on the blockchain after their deaths. The British Museum has already engaged with an NFT trading platform to sell digital art by artists housed there. Because making new work by a late artist is normally frowned upon in the art world, the British Museum devised methods to generate “ultra-rare” NFTs such as artwork that was created but never printed. NFTs are also being considered by the families of great painters as a means of preserving the artist’s archive.
Link: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/what-can-nfts-do-for-dead-artists
YouTube Launches Separate Data Tabs for Videos, Shorts, Live Streams and Posts
Shorts and live streams are becoming increasingly popular among content creators and producing enormous returns, with shorts driving (30 billion views per day!). Channel managers wanted to know what kind of traffic their content creates and how it contributes to overall growth using such figures. As a result, YouTube Studio now has superior metrics for each type of material you submit.
The reach and engagement pages will be replaced by a new content tab that displays the data for videos, shorts, live streams, and posts. When you click into any of these tabs, you can simply track the specific performance of various content kinds posted, which was something that the community asked when shorts was launched. You can still see aggregated data from the ‘all’ page and should be able to access previously available metrics, albeit they may have been reorganised. Please keep in mind that if you haven’t uploaded for a specific sort of video format, you won’t see the tab. If you have never done live-streaming before, for example, the tab will not display.
TikTok Rolls Out a New ‘Friends’ Tab to More Users, Replacing the Current ‘Discover’ Tab
The Discover option on TikTok has been replaced by the Friends tab, where you are urged to connect with your friends in order to access their content on the website. It will also recommend accounts from individuals you know, with a follow button next to each name. TikTok’s decision to remove the Discover tab, which showed users a variety of content, including trending hashtags and videos, as well as a search bar, is interesting because the FYP already has a ‘Following’ tab that displays all the content from people you follow on the app, which includes your friends. While TikTok has yet to clarify its reasoning for this modification, it could be that they are attempting to transition from a viral and popular video app to an interpersonal app.
LinkedIn Updates Professional Community Policies to Better Reflect What’s Not Allowed in the App
Summary of salient points below:
- More people than ever are coming to LinkedIn to find opportunities, be more productive, and learn new skills.
- Allow users to safely participate on the platform.
- Empowering members to engage in professional discussions about topics they care about.
- While harassment, hate speech, and other abusive content have never been allowed on LinkedIn, they’ve added what types of comments and behaviours go against Professional Community Policies.
LinkedIn does have a specific policy against ‘sexual innuendos and unwanted advances’, which now also includes more examples of what’s not allowed.
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/137370
TikTok Is Launching In-App Mini Games to Boost User Engagement.
The games would be simple HTML5-based apps created by third-party game developers and studios such as Zynga Inc. Gaming is a significant part of online culture, and it will allow TikTok to increase its appeal among younger viewers. Tiktok has made a greater push toward gaming in order to diversify its revenue streams.
Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-tests-new-mini-games-with-users-in-vietnam/624104/
