We Are Social Asia Tuesday Tune-Up #453

Tuneup
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Written by Joey Peng, Xin Ni Er and Keith Chang

Voice Recordings in DMs could be coming your way soon on Twitter

Audio clips in DMs could become an option in the near future – with the rise of audio social network Clubhouse sparking making waves among the big platforms, Twitter’s move to include audio DMs might also be a means to tap into this trend.

This feature enables users to record an audio clip which can be sent as a message, which is essentially an extension of the audio recording option Twitter added earlier.

It also allows people of varying capacity, such vision-impaired users to engage with Tweet content and/or simply add another fun element to your DMs. Brands can consider recording fun or informational audio clips that for example, could be used to reply to common customer queries.

Coming soon from Facebook: Super, a video app tool that lets you interact with celebs

Facebook has launched a new live test of its upcoming ‘Super’ App that lets users interact with their favourite content creators.

Inspired by the Cameo app, Super enables creators, entrepreneurs and celebrities to host live and interactive video events while providing the opportunity for celebrity shout outs. 

One-on-one chat option is free at Super’s current testing stage, but this can also be monetised by creators. These live events can be promoted directly on Facebook, resulting in a larger reach for content creators. 

Super can open up a whole new avenue for creators to generate revenue while giving users a unique one-on-one session with their favourite celebrities. Sounds like a win-win scenario that both parties can look forward to.

The New York Times brings its crossword to AR

The New York Times is bringing its signature crosswords game into augmented reality. The media company announced this morning it’s launching a new AR-enabled game, “Shattered Crosswords,” on Instagram, where players will be able to solve clues by finding spinning broken crossword pieces in AR. When the right vantage point is achieved, players will find the words hidden among the shards above the puzzle.

The concept is similar to those found in other 3D puzzlers, like Polysphere, for example, where you swipe to rotate broken pieces to see a complete picture. But in this case, The NYT has made the whole gaming experience appear in augmented reality, as well.

The new game was built using technology from Facebook’s Spark AR platform, the company says, and it’s the first time The NYT has created an AR gaming experience.

The “Shattered Crosswords” game is available on the @NYTimes Instagram profile page under the “Effects” tab, alongside the company’s other AR reports. It works on both iOS and Android platforms.

Disclaimer: Featured image taken from 9to5mac.com