Twitter advertisers must now be verified, and more updates
Twitter news is endless as usual as we experience more unexpected u-turns in Elon Musk’s reign. Musk announced last week that accounts will need a verified checkmark, at a cost of $1000 if they want to advertise on the platform. However, if an application to become verified is declined, applicants will not get back their money.
As promised, last week Twitter removed accounts who are not paying for Twitter Blue, but it was reported that Musk decided to personally pay for subscriptions for King, Star Trek star William Shatner and basketball icon LeBron James. Fast forward a few days and on Saturday, he seemingly gave back some legacy checkmarks to those with over 1M followers. Perhaps this decision came after seeing the numbers – only 28 people with legacy verification signed up for Twitter Blue in the hours after their blue checkmark was removed.
Snapchat’s AI chatbot is now free for all global users
At its Partner Summit, Snap announced new updates to the app, including how its AI chatbot is now opening up to a global audience. The bot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, was initially available for paid subscribers, but will now be free for all. The feature is being upgraded with new functionality, including the ability to add My AI to group chats, get recommendations for places on Snap Map and Lenses, and share Snaps with My AI and receive replies. Visual AI replies to Snaps, however, will only be available to subscribers, which now equate to three million. Visual snap replies might look like – sharing a picture of vegetables and receiving a reply with recipe suggestions that include those vegetables 🫑
Snapchat’s AR technology comes to the real world with ‘AR Mirrors’
Snap’s Shopping Suite, which allows users to try on products using AR, is coming to life with AR Mirrors. Brands that are already using Snap’s Shopping Suite have noticed the benefits – clothing brand Princess Polly, for example, delivered over 50 million fit and sizing recommendations and saw a 24% lower return rate when they used Snap’s technology. AR Mirrors will bring AR features to physical spaces and events, allowing customers to play with AR in the real world, such as in physical retail stores.
Credit: Snap
Meta opens up its social VR space Horizon Worlds to teens
Meta has announced that it’s opening up Horizon Worlds to teen users in the US and Canada, after previously restricting the social VR platform to users 18 and above. Meta says it has invested in new safety features, including back-end protections and parental supervision tools that allow parents and teens to help manage the experience before making Worlds available to younger teenagers. To ensure suitable content for teens, they will not have access to mature world and event ratings.
Credit: Meta
Your BeReal posts can now include what you’re listening to on Spotify
Spotifty is integrating into BeReal posts, allowing users to show what they’re listening to on the app when they post on BeReal. Friends will be able to listen to a preview of music shared on poss, adding another layer of authenticity to the app – which prompts users to share a photo of themselves in real time. The app is also said to be working on integration with Apple Music 🎵
In other news
In the world of Instagram, the app now has a “video-scrubbing” feature for Reels on iOS 📹The platform is working on the ability to add polls in the comments section and to allow people to download reels 👀Facebook is now allowing users to create a clip from any live video 📹 It has added a “Search” button for Stories in order to find fast a specific sticker, music, GIF, much like the rising success of TikTok’s search button 👀Speaking of, Tiktok has confirmed that you can still upload 10 Minute videos, but can’t record them directly through the app.
