Written by Lee Ai Yun, Melantha Tan and Ashleigh Sim

Instagram takes on TikTok with song lyrics.

Instagram one-ups popular lip-syncing app, TikTok with the Music sticker. This new feature allows users to display song lyrics on their video Story that is synced to a specific music track. The sticker not just adds visual flair to IG story content, it also encourages engagement, prompting followers and fans to sing and bop along to songs while tapping through stories.   

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Instagram posted a new story with Billie Eilish singing her hit, My Strange Addiction, to show off what the lyrics function will look like. The sticker is now available in all countries where Instagram Music has been launched, including the US, Germany, and France.

With this new sticker addition, one thing is for sure — the carefully staged, colour-corrected, glossy-looking Instagram aesthetic is over. Now, users want less perfection and more authenticity. Thus, comedy, absurdity, and the rough edges of reality are becoming the new “look” of social media, which explain the rise of stickers that cultivates raw and unfiltered content. The Music sticker gives creators more freedom to express complex jokes or just act silly.

Meanwhile, TikTok is not playing the waiting game. They just launched its own text feature for adding overlay captions to videos today. Creators will surely find plenty of hilarious use cases for text on TikTok, and it could help replace the common trope of writing captions on paper and holding them up during clips.

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Instagram versus Tiktok is definitely a battle to watch, but regardless, these updates are keeping social videos from going stale, encouraging users to have even more fun with it.

Fortnite: The hot, new social network for Gen Z

Fortnite is evolving beyond its status as a hit video to becoming the new social gathering space for millions of teen and tween players. In many ways, Fortnite is the new Facebook for Generation Z. A new study by the National Research Group (NRG) found that unlike other platforms or services, Fortnite uniquely combines benefits from gaming, social media, and streaming platforms, offering consumers with a singular experience.  

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Fornite enthusiasts are extremely loyal: 40% of teens between the ages of 10 to 17 are playing Fortnite weekly, the highest percentage of any game title. The young regular players are spending 25% of their free time on the game.

Fornite is the No.1 service teens are using, making the game a very attractive option for marketers looking to gain notice from younger generations. Despite not being able to advertise in the traditional sense, some brands still manage to find ways to tap into the community:  Nike recently dropped a pair of exclusive Jordan’s that can only be obtained through the game. Marvel and Epic teamed up for the Avengers: Endgame mode on Fortnite. Electronic DJ Marshmello held a virtual concert in the game a day before the Super Bowl. These activations and collaborations blend together digital campaigns and experiential stunts. Clearly, Fornite is more than just a game, it’s a positive digital space that has a lot of creative potential for brands and marketers.

Everyone is trying to stay ahead in the Sticker game.
Enter: “Join Chat” sticker

Ever since stickers have been introduced, social media platforms have been adding new improvements from polls, cutdowns to question stickers. Consumers can see these updates on both Instagram and Snapchat platforms as they race to beat each other to launching new features.

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Now, Instagram and Snapchat are both reportedly working on the new ‘Join Chat’ stickers that will allow users who view your story to request to join the chat group. The aim of this is to increase consumer engagement with the platform. For you and me, this feature is just another new feature but for these tech competitors, it’s about who will stay ahead and win consumer’s favor. This time, who will stay ahead? Team Snapchat or team Instagram?