New social media features and updates to know this week
Including updates from TikTok, Reddit, Meta and more.
TikTok is the big newsmaker this week, rolling out a series of tools to give brands more control over how they sell items. It also introduced new parental controls to help limit kids’ time on the app.
The video platform wasn’t the only social media giant making moves this week. Meta launched its Community Notes program, while Instagram and Snapchat debuted new AI-powered features.
Here’s what you need to know this week.
TikTok
TikTok has introduced several features in the TikTok Shop, including the ability for sellers to automate and customize aftersales requests for things like returns, refunds, replacements and cancellations.
Another new option allows sellers to not let customers use a PO Box as a shipping destination. The goal is to cut down on order cancellations and “Delivery Not Received” notices. Sellers shipping their own merchandise can also decide how long customers have to submit a cancellation request or initiate a return.
TikTok now permits qualified sellers to extend shipping handling times from three business days to up to seven business days. Qualified sellers focusing on fashion can also set specific fashion products in their store as a “final sale,” meaning a buyer can’t return it. The announcement didn’t specify what items would be eligible before certain “sub-categories” right now.
TikTok also introduced new settings to help parents manage their teens’ app use. The updates include:
- Time away: Parents can now block TikTok access during selected times. Parents can set a recurring schedule and approve or deny requests for extra time.
- Follower and block visibility: Parents can see who their teen is following, who follows them and which accounts they’ve blocked.
- Wind down: For teens under 16, if they’re still on TikTok after 10 p.m., they’ll see a full-screen prompt with calming music, encouraging them to log off. “If a teen decides to spend additional time on TikTok after the first reminder, we show a second, harder to dismiss, full-screen prompt,” the company wrote. It didn’t provide details about what makes the second reminder “harder to dismiss.”
Meta
Meta has launched its community notes programs for Facebook, Instagram and Threads in the United States.
Roughly 200,000 potential contributors have signed up so far across all three apps and the waitlist remains open for those who wish to take part in the program, which includes both writing and rating notes. Meta wrote that it’ll start by “gradually and randomly admitting people off of the waitlist,” and will take time to “test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly.”
Meta used X’s open-source algorithm to guide the creation of the rating system for its Community Notes program. For Meta’s version, notes can be up to 500 characters and must include a supporting link. Meta highlighted that notes won’t initially apply to ads.
Once fully operational, notes won’t publish unless “contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them.”
“This isn’t majority rules,” Meta wrote. “No matter how many contributors agree on a note, it won’t be published unless people who normally disagree decide that it provides helpful context.”
A new feature social media managers should enjoy is the ability to link Google Analytics accounts to Meta for deeper insights into campaign performance.
Handled through Meta Events Manager, advertisers will have the option to choose between linking “All traffic sources” or just “Traffic from Meta.”
Facebook now allows creators to earn money from views on public stories.
This new feature is available globally to participants in the Facebook Content Monetization program, which launched last year to merge in-stream ads, ads on reels and the Performance Bonus program.
With this update, creators can share a snippet of a video or reel from their page to their story and earn money from those views. They can also monetize original content created specifically for their stories.
Instagram has started testing the use of Meta AI to help users write comments and captions for posts.
Threads user Jonah Manzano posted a video showing he’s seeing a “pencil with a star” icon on the left side of the comments field. When tapped, users will receive a list of possible comments to make on a video or image based on an analysis of the content, including facial features.
Manzano’s example is of a post of someone who took a selfie in their living room while someone else lounges in the background. The photo caption is “Yo”.
In response, Meta AI provided three basic comment suggestions: – “Love the cozy atmosphere,” “Cute living set up (smiley face emoji)” and “Great photo shoot location”.
The suggestions weren’t great, but in fairness, the IG post didn’t offer Meta AI much context to work with. It’s possible the tool would work better if it had a different caption.
While the video was specific to captions, a screengrab in another post shows that IG plans to use Meta AI to generate caption ideas as well.
Reddit is giving users greater control over the ads they see in their feeds.
By choosing to hide an ad, users will automatically block future ads from that advertiser for at least one year. After that period, they can hide ads from the same advertiser again.
Users can hide ads for any reason. Reporting an ad for violating Reddit policies will hide that ad, and future ads from the same advertiser as well.
This update will gradually become available on iOS, Android and reddit.com over the next few weeks.
Snapchat
Snapchat is giving Platinum subscribers new AI-powered video lenses.
Platinum users will see these lenses in their lens carousel. They’re available for both the front and back camera.
The platform started with three lenses, including “Raccoon” and “Fox,” which animate animals in your Snap, and “Spring Flowers,” which creates a zoom-out effect to reveal a bouquet of flowers. Snaps captured with these lenses can be sent to friends or posted to Stories and Spotlight.
Snapchat promised to release new lenses every week.
Bluesky
Bluesky has made a series of upgrades as part of its latest update, including increasing the length of allowable videos to three minutes.
As part of update 1.99, users of the open-source platform will have a new Chat Requests screen for direct messages from people they don’t follow. It also added a “Mute account option” available in the three-dot post menu.
Bluesky has also added three new community translations: Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Esperanto.
