Social media updates and new features to know this week
Including X, Snapchat, LinkedIn and more.
Welcome to a new week of updates. X says it’s trying to help users to understand why their posts may be getting less reach.
The platform recently expanded the code it publishes on GitHub to show more about how posts are ranked in the “For You” feed, including labels that can limit a post’s visibility.
They’re also testing a tool that lets some users see if their account or posts have been tagged with restrictions.
The company said the goal is to give people more transparency around shadowbanning, hoping users will be able to see for themselves “whether a platform is limiting their reach, whether the system is fair, and why they see particular content.”
Users in the test can download information about labels applied to their posts over the previous month, although figuring out exactly what the data means may still take some work.
Here’s what else is new.
X
X is also giving users a few more tools to make videos directly in the app. iOS users can now add text and emoji overlays to videos before posting, a basic feature that has long been standard on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
It’s a small update, but it fits X’s ongoing push to make video a bigger part of the platform. X has also upgraded its video editor and adjusted its algorithm to give video posts more visibility.
Snapchat
Snapchat is helping pharmaceutical companies to run ads without burying important safety information.
The platform is adding multiple disclaimer links directly to pharma ads, so users can tap them from the ad to things like safety guides, prescribing information or other required disclosures.
Advertisers will be able to add up to three disclaimer links alongside the main CTA. The company says that gives health brands more flexibility because drug campaigns often need to send people to several different resources, rather than a single landing page.
The format will work across Snap Ads, Story Ads and Commercials, with Sponsored Snaps expected to get it later this year.
LinkedIn has released a new playbook aimed at helping brands show up more frequently in AI chatbot answers.
The idea is that as more people use tools like ChatGPT and other AI assistants instead of traditional search, brands need to think about whether AI systems see them as credible sources.
LinkedIn argues that a strong presence on its platform can help because LinkedIn content is already frequently cited by AI tools. The basic advice is to build a complete company presence, publish useful content regularly and extend that reach through employee profiles and credible creators.
LinkedIn also says long-form articles tend to attract more AI citations than regular feed posts, along with regular fresh content.
Check out the full playbook here.
Pinterest has teamed up with Zillow to give advertisers more accurate ways to reach people thinking about buying, renting or improving a home.
Through Pinterest’s Media Network Connect tool, Zillow can now share first-party audience segments with advertisers using Zillow Elevate.
Brands will be able to target 34 different Zillow audience groups, including buyers, renters, sellers, homeowners, fixer-upper shoppers and recent homeowners.
Zillow says the targeting is based on actual user behavior and more than 200 housing-related signals, rather than broad demographic guesses.
WhatsApp is testing a new Scam Alert feature that would warn users when an incoming message looks suspicious.
The optional tool would scan messages from people who aren’t in your contacts and look for language or conversation patterns commonly used in scams. If something looks off, WhatsApp’s new feature would put a warning in the chat.
The platform emphasized that the detection happens on the user’s device, not on its servers.
“No message content leaves the device for classification or is auto reported to WhatsApp, Meta, or anyone else,” the company said.
Users would still decide what happens next, whether that’s blocking the sender, reporting the conversation or keeping the chat going. They could also mark a warning as incorrect so that conversation isn’t flagged again.
