Social media updates and new features to know this week
Including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and more.
Hello, social friends! This week we have several updates that focus on more user control and safer social spaces for young users, including increased guardrails on Instagram and TikTok. Let’s take deeper dive and see how these new features can inform your social strategy.
Instagram has reorganized the in-app tabs to include Feed, Reels and DMs.
“We’re organizing the app around what people use it for most, which has increasingly been reels and DMs,” Instagram’s Adam Mosseri .
Users will soon get the option to view how the app’s algorithm has categorized interests. For example, users can see content organized in categories like travel, fitness, or comedy and then add topics they like and remove ones they don’t.
The goal is to make feeds feel more personalized and less random, Instagram says.
Additionally, Instagram will now set teen accounts, ages 13–17, to a default PG-13 level of content.
That means teens will see material similar to what you might find in a PG-13 movie such as reduced swearing, no graphic images, no frequent depiction of drugs or alcohol, and limited exposure to dangerous stunts. The change is automatic, and teens cannot bypass this setting without a parent or guardian’s permission.
Further, Instagram is introducing stricter rules and tools for these accounts. Teens will be blocked from following or seeing accounts that repeatedly post age-inappropriate content and search results for sensitive topics such as alcohol, gore or self-harm will be more heavily filtered. A new setting called “Limited Content” gives parents the option to apply an even stricter experience where teens cannot leave or receive comments.
The rollout began in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada, and will expand globally in the coming weeks.
TikTok
Similarly, TikTok is also placing more safeguards around accounts created by young users with new ways to verify that all users are at least 13 years old.
Users must enter a birthdate when signing up, and TikTok uses technology, such as AI checks of profile images or “birthday soon” cues, to detect suspicious under-13 accounts.
They say they have removed about 6 million underage globally.
Snapchat
Snapchat announced an upgrade of its AR tools at Lens Fest 2025, aimed both at making AR creation easier and at preparing for next-generation hardware.
The company introduced Lens Studio AI, a tool where creators can simply describe what they want and the system helps generate code, assets and full AR experiences.
They also launched a modular system called Blocks, letting developers reuse scripts, effects and assets.
On the AR content side, Snapchat launched features like “Realistic StyleGen” for more believable lighting, textures and full-body AR characters, enhanced “FaceGen” for more detailed face tracking and expressions, and “AI Clips” for image-to-video AR experiences.
At the same time, Snapchat is extending its AR platform toward monetization and hardware.
They rolled out new programs to help creators earn money through a “Lens+ Payouts” model tied to premium subscriptions and made big moves to ready their platform for the upcoming consumer version of their AR glasses.
X
X is launching a new Handles Marketplace where users who subscribe to its Premium+ or Premium Business plans can acquire dormant usernames.
Handles are divided into two tiers: “Priority” handles might be available for free, while “Rare” handles will only be available via a process similar to an auction or when users apply.
If the subscriber later cancels their premium plan, they’ll lose the handle and revert back to their original username.
Additionally, according to a post by Nikita Bier, product lead at X, the platform is testing a new link-sharing experience on iOS.
The update aims to make it easier for followers to engage with links users share, by improving how links appear or function in posts.
“For creators, a common complaint is that posts with links tend to get lower reach. This is because the web browser covers the post and people forget to Like or Reply. So X doesn’t get a clear signal whether the content is any good,” Bier writes. “To help get better signal, posts will now collapse to the bottom of the page so people can react while you’re reading.”
X is also overhauling how it recommends posts to users. X owner Elon Musk says the platform plans to remove all “heuristics,” or preset rules or shortcuts, from its recommendation algorithm within a month or so, which suggests a shift toward a new, likely more dynamic, system for determining what appears in users’ feeds.
Pinterest has introduced new user controls that let people limit how much AI-generated imagery they see in their feeds.
The company added a “GenAI interests” section under “Refine your recommendations,” where users can toggle whether they want to see fewer AI-created or AI-modified Pins in specific categories like beauty, art, fashion and home décor.
In addition, the platform says it will make its “AI modified” labels more visible on images and expects to roll these features out first on Android and desktop, with iOS support coming soon.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
