It’s your final social media recap of the year! And this week, Instagram is updating how we share other people’s Stories, TikTok is adding a new feed, Australia bans social for under 16s and much more.
Meanwhile, Elton John is (reluctantly) getting into the Christmas spirit and getting some tips on cleaning his oven. And while we can all struggle to parallel park, unfortunately for Joe Jonas, it was all caught on camera. Read on for more social media news.
Instagram updates Story sharing
Image credit: Lindsey Gamble via Threads
Instagram has made a big change to Stories, allowing anyone to share public Stories to their own story – regardless of whether you’ve been tagged in the original post. If you don’t want people to reshare your Stories, you can turn it off in your settings. So, now you can reshare your fav celebs, your friends who forgot to tag you, and our Stories.
TikTok is launching a new way to share content with friends and family with “Shared Collections”. Individual Collections rolled out earlier this year, letting you save content in a custom folder, but Shared Collections lets you create these folders with others. You can only create a Shared Collection with someone if you’re both following each other. TikTok also teased Shared Feeds, which are set to launch in the coming months. These are feeds found in direct messages that will generate new content tailored to each user.
Meta is revamping the Facebook app for Gen Z. Facebook Marketplace has been very popular with younger users, so Meta has added it to the bottom navigation bar alongside Reels and Friends. Meta has also added the infamous double-tap to like move to Facebook, and will arrange images in a grid. And finally, Facebook is heading back to its roots by prioritising connecting with friends. This includes rolling out updated user profiles and letting people add more information about their interests and hobbies.
Instagram is giving you more control over your algorithm with a new tool aptly called “Your Algorithm”. When you are watching Reels, a heart icon will appear in the top right corner. Tapping on it will open “Your Algorithm” and display a list of topics Instagram thinks you like. You can then pick which topics you want to see more or less of.
YouTube is making it easier for creators to partner with brands by rebranding its brand–initiated video linking as “Brand Partner Access.” Creator-approved brands will now be given access to video performance metrics on sponsored content and be able to launch creator content as ads in larger paid campaigns.
