Facebook Launches AI Camera Roll Suggestions
Facebook rolled out a new opt-in AI feature in the US and Canada that suggests creative edits and collages for photos and videos already stored in a user’s camera roll. The tool analyzes unposted images and offers ideas like birthday-themed edits or recaps, which users can then share to their Feed or Stories. Meta emphasizes that the unposted media is not used to train its AI models or for ad targeting unless the user actively chooses to edit or share it.

Instagram Fixes Bug Affecting Story Reach
Instagram publicly announced and fixed a bug that had been reducing the reach of users’ Stories when they posted multiple times in a single day. The bug had effectively penalized frequent posters, a common complaint among creators who rely on Stories for daily engagement. The fix means creators can now resume posting several Stories daily without fear of their subsequent content being deliberately suppressed by the algorithm.

Threads Continues to Build Community and Messaging Tools
Threads continued its rapid evolution by testing new messaging and engagement features, including Group Chats within DMs and a simplified UI for the search function on iOS. The platform is also experimenting with a “Community” feature, signaling a strong focus on anchoring niche, topic-based discussions. These updates are aimed at improving the platform’s utility and fostering deeper, more private connections among users.

Snapchat Introduces Paid Storage for Memories
Snapchat launched a new paid subscription tier that allows users to purchase extended storage for their “Memories” once they exceed the current 5GB limit. This change gives users a way to permanently archive their older saved Snaps, which are often nostalgic or personal. The introduction of paid storage indicates an effort to monetize the platform’s archive of ephemeral content and provide a premium user benefit.

YouTube Rolls Out Deepfake Detection for Creators
YouTube officially launched the first wave of its AI Likeness Detection tool to a select group of eligible creators in the Partner Program. The tool allows creators to verify their identity and then track any AI-generated videos that use their facial likeness without permission. This feature is a direct response to the rising threat of deepfakes and allows creators to request the removal of unauthorized content that could mislead audiences or damage their reputation.

YouTube Launches AI Likeness Protection Tool
YouTube began rolling out its AI Likeness Detection tool to creators in the Partner Program, a major move to combat deepfakes and unauthorized AI use. The feature allows creators to detect and request the removal of videos that use their face or voice without consent, safeguarding their identity and reputation. Creators must complete an identity verification process to access the tool, which is aimed at protecting them from fraudulent or misleading AI-generated content.

YouTube Redesigns Player and Comment System
YouTube introduced a major user interface update across its web, mobile, and TV platforms, featuring a cleaner and more immersive video player. The update includes Comment Threading, a structured reply system that makes complex conversations in the comments section much easier to follow. Other visual enhancements include custom “like” animations for select content and improved motion design for seamless mobile navigation.

Meta Expands Threads to Support Long-Form Content
Threads launched support for lengthy text posts, allowing users to share content up to 10,000 characters—a substantial increase over its initial limits. This move positions the platform as a competitor for publishing deep-dive articles, newsletters, and thought leadership pieces. Threads also began testing topic-based communities to anchor niche discussions and drive deeper, more focused user engagement.

Instagram Overhauls Notification and Inbox Management
Instagram introduced a “diversity-aware” ranking system for push notifications to combat “notification fatigue” and reduce repetitive alerts. For high-volume accounts, the platform expanded DM management tools to include multi-select filters, custom folders, and shortcuts for sorting brand messages from fan communication. This aims to give users better control over their inbox and reduce burnout from constant, redundant alerts.

Meta Ad System Receives New Optimization Controls
Meta updated its advertising manager with new features to improve campaign efficiency and compliance for advertisers. These features include a Landing Page View optimization goal, which focuses budget on users who actually load the destination page, and a Restricted Words tool, which allows advertisers to blacklist specific terms from AI-generated ad copy. This gives marketers more precise control over both their budget’s performance and their brand’s voice in automated campaigns.

YouTube Unveils Massive AI-Powered Creative Suite
At its “Made on YouTube 2025” event, YouTube announced a major overhaul of its creator tools, heavily integrating advanced AI capabilities. This includes “Extend with AI” for Shorts, which generates a video continuation from a short user clip with a simple prompt. The platform also introduced AI-powered tools for live streams, such as “Ask Studio,” a conversational assistant that gives creators personalized insights and analytics.

Meta Unlocks Direct Messaging on Threads for All Users
Threads rolled out its native direct messaging (DM) feature to all users globally, completing its transition to a fully independent platform. The feature allows for private, one-on-one conversations without requiring users to switch over to Instagram. This enhancement is a crucial step in positioning Threads as a standalone communication hub separate from its Meta siblings.

Instagram Launches Dedicated iPad App
Instagram finally released a dedicated, native app for iPadOS, ending years of users relying on a stretched-out, scaled-up iPhone version. The app is optimized for the larger screen, prioritizing the Reels feed and offering multi-panel views that allow for separate, one-tap access to Stories and DMs. This development is aimed at improving the content consumption experience and capitalizing on the platform’s rapidly growing video and messaging usage.

YouTube Introduces New Monetization Options for Creators
YouTube announced new features to help creators earn more from both long-form videos and Shorts. The platform is launching a more flexible sponsorship format for long-form content, allowing creators to dynamically insert and swap out brand segments. For Shorts, a new feature enables creators to add direct links to a brand’s website for sponsored content, closing the loop on conversions and traffic.

Meta Rolls Out Expanded AI Smart Glasses
At the annual Meta Connect 2025 event, the company announced several new models of its smart glasses, including the high-performance Oakley Meta Vanguard. The main announcement was the reveal of the Meta Ray-Ban Display model, which features a full-color head-up display and is controlled by the new Meta Neural Band. These developments highlight Meta’s long-term vision of shifting AI interaction and social connection into wearable devices.

Instagram Deprioritizes Hashtags for Reach
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed that hashtags no longer boost organic reach as they once did, now primarily serving as content categorization tools. The algorithm increasingly prioritizes on-page keywords, alt text, and authentic engagement like comments and DMs over hashtag volume. Creators are advised to shift focus to Instagram SEO (keywords in the caption/video) and high-quality content to maximize discoverability.

Instagram Launches Multi-Part Reels Linking
Instagram rolled out a new feature that allows creators to link sequential Reels into a series, which significantly improves storytelling for multi-part content. Viewers can now move directly from one part to the next without having to navigate back to the creator’s profile to find the next video. This update is aimed at boosting watch time and viewer retention for episodic content and tutorials.

YouTube Introduces New Shorts Analytics Metrics
YouTube launched two powerful new analytics metrics for Shorts: Retention Charts and Skip Rate. Retention Charts show exactly where viewers drop off during the video, helping creators identify weak moments in their content. Skip Rate is now the primary metric for performance, replacing the standard view rate, and highlights how many people swipe past a Short in the first 3 seconds.

Threads Expands DM Functionality and Search
Threads began testing an independent Direct Messaging feature in select regions, allowing users to chat privately without relying on their linked Instagram DMs. The platform also added “AI-powered summaries” to its search results, providing quick answers from within the Threads ecosystem. These changes signal a clear effort to evolve Threads into a more independent, real-time social platform with stronger utility features.

TikTok Signals Move to Limited Hashtag Use
TikTok is testing a restriction that limits creators to a maximum of five hashtags per video upload. The platform is reframing the role of hashtags from a volume-based growth hack to a focused content filter. This change encourages creators to be highly selective, using only the most relevant tags, and is part of a broader push to reduce keyword stuffing.

LinkedIn Adds Rolling Post Performance Analytics
LinkedIn introduced new rolling analytics that allow users to view their post performance metrics over time, making it easier to track content momentum. This update is part of the platform’s investment in supporting its creator community and provides professionals with a better way to measure their personal brand growth. The new metrics include tracking of saves and sends, giving deeper insight into content quality and relevance.

Instagram Rolls Out New Sharing and Social Features
Instagram launched three major features simultaneously: a native Repost function for public posts and Reels, an opt-in Friends Map for real-time location sharing with close friends, and a dedicated Friends tab within Reels. The Repost tool allows users to amplify content they love directly to their followers, appearing in a new profile tab and friends’ feeds. The Friends Map directly mimics Snap Map, indicating a strategic effort to encourage in-person meet-ups and location-based sharing among close connections. The “Friends tab” in Reels curates content liked or shared by friends, shifting discovery toward social proof and away from pure algorithmic trends.

X (formerly Twitter) Settles Major Severance Lawsuit
Elon Musk’s X corporation reached a tentative, multi-million dollar settlement with former employees who were laid off after the 2022 acquisition. The legal battle had centered on claims that X failed to honor the promised severance packages for the mass firings. The tentative resolution, estimated to be around $500 million, addresses a significant financial and legal overhang that had plagued the company for years.

TikTok Ban Threatens US Creators and Marketers
The legal and political uncertainty surrounding the app’s ownership intensified as the US government’s deadline for parent company ByteDance to sell the platform loomed. The continued threat of a full ban has forced creators and marketers to actively diversify their content strategies across other platforms. Negotiations for a sale or a technical deal to satisfy US security concerns remain ongoing, keeping the platform in legal limbo for its vast American user base.

Instagram Expands Creator Analytics
Instagram introduced deeper engagement insights, particularly for performance analysis on Carousels and Reels. Creators can now see exactly which individual slide within a carousel post received the most likes, providing valuable granular data. Similarly, analytics now pinpoint the precise moment within a Reel where viewers tapped the ‘Like’ button, enabling better content optimization.

YouTube Creators Voice Concern Over Algorithm Shifts
Content creators across the platform expressed concern over an alleged algorithm update in mid-August that reportedly caused noticeable drops in views for many channels. While YouTube made no official announcement of a single drastic change, the platform had recently increased its focus on penalizing low-quality, repetitive, and unoriginal content. This emphasis on “authenticity” appears to be negatively impacting channels that rely on highly templated or AI-generated video formats.

Instagram Launches AI Video Styling Tool
The Edits app introduced “Restyle,” a new AI feature allowing creators to easily transform the look of their videos using preset styles. The tool is currently free for limited use, but Meta hints at a future subscription model to offset high compute costs. This feature, which can change outfits, lighting, or entire scenes, is a major step toward on-platform generative video editing for all users.

All Facebook Video Uploads Now Default to Reels
Meta confirmed that all videos uploaded to the platform will now appear in the Reels feed, signaling a major push for it to be the central video format on Facebook. This change unifies the video experience, eliminating the need for creators to choose between a “Feed video” and a “Reel” format. The new rule means long-form content will now also benefit from the Reels-centric discovery algorithm.

Snapchat Acquires Student Scheduling App
Snap purchased Saturn, a popular calendar-based social app for high school students, with plans to integrate its scheduling features into Snapchat. This acquisition is a strategic move to deepen Snap’s relevance in the daily lives of Gen Z users, who already use the app heavily. Saturn is used in approximately 80% of US high schools, giving Snap an immediate tool for coordinating meet-ups and class schedules.

Meta and Google Officials Depose in Ad Probe
Representatives from Google appeared before India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 28th as part of a money laundering probe into illegal online betting advertisements on their platforms. Meta officials, who were also summoned, did not appear but had requested a further extension to gather necessary documents. The probe aims to determine the extent of the platforms’ awareness and control over the scam ads that have allegedly defrauded Indian citizens of large sums.

• Instagram – Trial Reels & Slide-Like Analytics
  Instagram now offers “Trial Reels” (shown to non-followers) for creators with ≥1,000 followers and is testing like-counts on each frame of carousel posts.
  These changes aim to give creators deeper insight into how individual slides perform and boost discoverability beyond existing audiences.
  These moves reflect Instagram’s push to treat Reels as a standard growth vehicle instead of just a bonus format.
  
• TikTok – New DM, Story & Publishing Features
  TikTok introduced a batch of features in July: photo replies in comments, “Story” filters for secret replies, scheduling posts in-app and new badge/status tools for creators.
  These updates help creators deepen community engagement, make their workflow smoother and keep audiences within the app ecosystem.
  For brands and creators, the lesson is: apply these tools to make content more interactive and less passive.
  
• X (Twitter) – AI Notes & Emoji Promotions Curb
  X (formerly Twitter) is moving ahead with AI-authored Community Notes and restricting the use of emojis in promoted posts — signalling tighter content quality control and political-/spam-sensitive moderation.
  The platform is emphasising engagement quality (rich media, genuine replies) over purely viral metrics.
  For marketers on X: ensure your promoted content is meaningful, not just flashy, and be prepared for more moderation oversight.
  
• Facebook / Meta – Music in Text Posts & Originality Focus
  Facebook (via Meta Platforms) now allows music tracks and themed-artist backgrounds in text posts, and is algorithmically demoting unoriginal / recycled content.
  These changes emphasise creative expression in even simple posts, and discourage low-effort reposts or content reuse.
  Brands and creators should lean into native creativity (custom formats, music-led posts) rather than reuse generic content.
  
• YouTube – Monetisation Shake-up & Trending Page Removal
  YouTube is updating its Partner Program starting July 15 to tighten rules around “repetitious/templated” content and is retiring its classic “Trending” page in favour of category-specific charts and AI-driven discovery.
  The emphasis is shifting to originality, deeper viewer engagement and niche discovery rather than broad surface-level virality.
  Creators must elevate their content with unique value or risk reduced visibility and monetisation — staying generic is no longer sufficient.
  
• LinkedIn – Paid Newsletters & “Thought Leader” Ads
  LinkedIn has introduced paid newsletters for creators and brands to monetise long-form content, as well as “Thought Leader” ad formats enabling sponsored posts from individuals’ profiles.
  These updates position LinkedIn more strongly as a content-platform (rather than just a network) and broaden revenue paths for professionals.
  For B2B brands or personal-brand builders: publishing high-value newsletters and leveraging individual profiles can become key parts of your strategy.

YouTube Revamps In‑Stream Trending Sections

YouTube overhauled its trending content presentation, removing in-stream trending lists and shifting them to the YouTube Charts hub. The change aims to improve content discovery by categorizing trending videos by topic—like music, podcasts, or trailers—making it easier for users to find what interests them.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/topic/social-media-updates/

YouTube Clarifies Monetization Rules on Inauthentic Content

Responding to creator concerns, YouTube provided more transparency on how “inauthentic content” is assessed. The update outlines new guidelines on what constitutes misleading titles, thumbnails, or mislabeled content—offering clarity on violations and eligibility for ads.

Meta Announces Major AI Investment Push

Meta committed to a substantial investment in its AI and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) development. This initiative includes enhancing AI across its platforms—especially in content moderation, recommendation systems, and user personalization—signaling a strategic focus on AI-driven growth.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/topic/social-media-updates/

Facebook Cracks Down on Unoriginal Content Reach

Facebook rolled out measures to limit the visibility of “repeated or derivative” content to prioritize original posts. This move is designed to reduce content recycling and boost fresh, creator-produced material in users’ feeds.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/topic/social-media-updates/

Reddit Enforces Age‑Verification in the UK

Reddit implemented new age-checking protocols for UK users to comply with updated child protection laws. Users must now verify their ages before accessing potentially age-restricted content, reinforcing safer platform standards .

YouTube Rolls Out AI Assistant for Creators

YouTube introduced “Ask Studio,” an AI tool within YouTube Studio, to help creators better understand their analytics. It provides intelligent suggestions to improve content performance, viewer retention, and engagement. The update is part of YouTube’s push to simplify data insights for creators.

Reddit Shares New Ad Optimization Tips

Reddit released updated best practices for advertisers, focusing on improved audience targeting, creative formatting, and community-based engagement. The tips are backed by recent performance data and aim to help brands better connect with Reddit’s unique user base.

Threads Adds Trending Feed and Direct Messaging

Threads officially launched a trending highlights feed, showing real-time hot topics across the platform. In addition, direct messaging is now available to all users, making private interactions and conversation sharing much easier.

WhatsApp Business API Moves to Per‑Message Billing

WhatsApp changed its Business API pricing model from per-conversation to per-message billing. This shift will affect how brands manage outreach costs, especially for frequent customer interactions or large-scale campaigns.

Instagram Upgrades Ideas Tab in Edits Tool

Instagram’s Edits tool received an update to its “Ideas” tab, offering more ways to save trending audio, add sticky notes, and explore creative inspiration. This enhancement helps creators organize content ideas and streamline the editing process.

Bluesky Adds Custom Notification Settings

Bluesky introduced new notification controls, allowing users to customize alerts by type and priority. This change gives users a more focused and less distracting experience while staying updated on important interactions.

YouTube Enhances Creator–Brand Data Sharing

YouTube now lets creators securely share deeper audience insights with advertisers, improving the effectiveness of brand partnerships. This feature aims to support monetization by helping advertisers target relevant audiences more accurately.

Meta Supports EU Regulations for Teen Safety

Meta expressed support for new EU proposals to raise minimum age limits and implement stricter safety measures for minors using social platforms. The move aligns with global pressure on tech companies to enhance online child protection.

All New Facebook Videos Will Soon Be Classified as Reels

Facebook announced that all new video uploads—whether short, long, or live—will automatically become Reels. The existing “Video” tab will be renamed “Reels,” and users will be prompted to review audience settings. The move aims to simplify video publishing and introduce more creative tools.

Meta to Introduce Ads on WhatsApp

Meta confirmed plans to expand its monetization of WhatsApp by launching advertising in the Updates tab. This includes channel subscriptions, promoted content, and ads—the end of its previously ad-free stance. The rollout will begin globally over the upcoming months.

Facebook Implements Passkey Login for Mobile

Meta has introduced passkey authentication for Facebook logins on mobile devices. Users can now sign in using device-level credentials—such as fingerprint, Face ID, or PIN—eliminating the need for traditional passwords. This feature will also extend to Messenger.

Pinterest Debuts AI‑Powered Auto‑Collages

At Cannes Lions, Pinterest unveiled its Auto‑Collage tool, powered by generative AI. Brands can automatically transform product catalogs into thousands of shoppable collages. The feature, developed in Pinterest Ad Labs, is currently in pilot and expected to roll out publicly soon.

Instagram Unveils New Creative Tools & ‘Trial Reels’

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Instagram launched several new creative features. Notably, “Trial Reels” allows users to test a story publicly before fully posting. They’ve also updated the Edits app with keyframes, 30+ dynamic text effects, voice enhancements, and an improved Ideas tab to inspire content creation. Plus, users can now reorder posts in their grid.

WhatsApp Rolls Out AI‑Based Conversation Summaries

WhatsApp introduced “Message Summaries,” a privacy-centric AI feature in group chats. New group members can quickly catch up via AI-generated summaries of missed messages, with end‑to‑end encryption ensuring that only they can view the content.