This week, Meta jumps on the subscription train, testing new premium subscription options across its apps. Instagram is giving users more control over Close Friends, X could be adding image labelling, and the under-16s social media ban debate continues across the globe.
Meanwhile, social has a new mascot in the form of the nonchalant But Why? penguin. Read on for more social media news.
Meta tests premium subscriptions
👆🏻 #Instagram is working on a new paid subscription** that will offer new perks, including the ability to create unlimited audience lists, see the list of followers who don’t follow you back and sneak a peek at a story without showing that you’ve viewed it 👀 pic.twitter.com/cQp6xUEzOY
Meta is set to test new subscriptions across Instagram, Facebook and WhatApp. Meta is testing a mix of subscriptions, with each app having different exclusive features. Meta also plans to test subscriptions for its AI features, like Vibes video generation. We don’t know what WhatsApp and Facebook subscriptions will look like just yet, but the Instagram subscription will let users see a list of followers who don’t follow you back, give the option to view a Story without the poster seeing that you viewed it, and more..
Instagram is working on a new feature that will let you remove yourself from others ‘Close Friends’ lists. The feature is in the early stages of development and is not being tested publicly yet. If you do choose to remove yourself from a Close Friends list, you will be warned that you won’t be able to rejoin without the owner adding you back.
X owner, Elon Musk, has teased a new feature that will label edited images on the platform as “manipulated media.” X is yet to clarify what counts as an edited image. Musk’s post was a reshare from the anonymous X account DogeDesigner, which is often used to introduce new X features. DogeDesigner’s post claimed the new feature could make it “harder for legacy media groups to spread misleading clips or pictures.”
If there is one thing we can rely on, it’s another set of updates from Edits. Firstly, you can now copy and paste fonts and clips from one video to another. You can also now easily access guides, frames and snapping through a new drop-down menu under the project name. Other updates include more effects that can be applied to specific objects in a frame, a new “Reverse” option, and more text animations.
