The social media battleground continues to see platforms vying for market share, with Instagram launching its own TikTok-like Reels and Snap testing a new music feature for Snapchat. Meanwhile, speculation around TikTok’s potential new owners – including Microsoft and now Twitter – continues to grow.
HEADLINES
- With perfect timing, Instagram launches Reels, dubbed the TikTok clone
- Snap brokers increased rights to add music to Snaps
- Facebook adds new sponsored post options for Groups, allowing brands to target communities
- WhatsApp has launched a fact-checking feature to stop the spread of misinformation
- Twitch Prime rebrands as Prime Gaming
INSIGHTS
- From self-care to social connection and, of course, sourdough, here are YouTube’s rising trends of COVID-19
- How two twins listening to old classics are making Dolly Parton and Phil Collins trend
- ‘NeRF in the Wild’ may sound like a new craze, but it’s structuring collections of photos into beautiful 3D images
COOL
- Google faked their own Pixel4a launch with an incomplete website
- TwikTwok converts Twitter’s top videos into a TikTok feed
- IBM built an avatar to answer questions about marine litter
- TikTok announced the first recipients of their $1 billion creator programme
- Capture is a Fitbit for carbon emissions
- Modelling nominative determinism – how to use AI to choose your baby name
DEEP READS
- What will (inevitable) increasing regulation of tech look like?
- How cheap and easy deepfakes are getting closer to the real thing
