We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #361

Mashup
Messaging app use continues to soar

The latest figures from eMarketer suggest that this year, 1.82 billion people globally will use messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WeChat. This represents an increase of 15.5% y-o-y, or an additional 243 million mobile users. Most of this year’s new users (63%) come from China, India, the US, Indonesia and Brazil.

Google app now features personalised newsfeed
Google is rolling out its take on Facebook’s personalised newsfeed on its flagship ‘Google’ app for Android and iOS. The feed will display news stories, features, videos and music, drawing on the user’s search history to serve up relevant content. While it’ll initially launch on the mobile app only, the company has also confirmed that it plans to add the feature to Google.com, too.

Facebook admins can create groups within pages
Facebook has been testing a feature that allows page admins to create their own groups, and has announced that it will now roll out globally. It’ll help brands to target more niche groups within their community, without relying on admins to set up work-related groups from their personal accounts – good news for social media managers! Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that a focus on groups will help build a more tightly knit online community; this is another move towards his vision.

Snapchat’s ‘Snap Publisher’ gives brands more control over ads
Brands using Snapchat can now create bespoke ads in the platform, and target them without the need for a third-party. The ‘Snap Publisher’ tool, which has been tested with select US advertisers, allows brands to create, edit, launch and target creative in a single workflow, and is now available to businesses of any size looking to advertise on the platform.