Social Media Updates You Might’ve Missed: May 2018

May is coming to a close, and that means it’s time for another batch of social media updates! From intricate storytelling options to fancy e-commerce features, popular social apps are heating up for the summer. While some may love the updates, others may not be as pleased with them. Whatever your take may be, we’re here to discuss this month’s latest social media features.

See all that’s in store for you below!

Instagram

Re-Share Posts via Insta Stories

Instagram’s latest feature allows users to re-share someone’s posts with their followers via Insta Stories. The update gives users a chance to add their very own commentary and reactions to a post without the hassle of repurposing it as their own. Express your thoughts on an image with fun stickers, GIFs, tags, comments…whatever your heart desires.  

The update may prove beneficial to brands and influencers as followers can repurpose their content with a few clicks of a button! Tap the paper airplane icon and click “Create a story with this post” to get started. The post will appear like a sticker on the screen that you can rotate, resize and decorate as you please.

How “Emoji” Is It?

The popularity of Instagram’s poll sticker inspired the new and improved emoji slider. The addition of this rating scale gives users a unique way to share their feedback beyond binary poll questions.

The emoji slider is located in the sticker tray! All you need to do is type out your question, post it to your story, and wait for followers’ feedback to pour on in.

E-Commerce Moves to Instagram

Instagram’s addition of e-commerce buttons may be just what your business needs to go to the next level. This update provides businesses a simple way to communicate with their customers and facilitate transactions with users’ profiles.

These “action buttons” will allow users to make reservations, buy movie tickets, order food, and so much more through third-party services within the app. Word has it Atom Tickets, Eventbrite, Fandango, and Yelp Reservations have joined in on the fun!

Video Chat Feature

Instagram is taking its very own spin on Apple’s FaceTime. Users will soon be able to chat with their friends and followers as they browse through their feed. Chat one-on-one or with multiple people.

A new camera icon will be available soon for users to click to enter the video chat mode. Want to continue scrolling through pics? All you have to do is minimize the video and continue chatting away!

Track Your Time

Instagram is in the works of adding a “Usage Insights” feature that will show users just how much time they spend on the app. It has not yet been announced how the data will be broken down. It may calculate a user’s time on the app overall or track it by the day, week or month.

While some users may not want to see how often they scroll through their feed, the intention of the update is to help people understand how their time online impacts them and their health, according to Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO.

Mute It

Does your Insta feed ever get bombarded by photos from the same account? Well, the platform now has a solution for that! It recently added a Mute feature that allows users to follow accounts without seeing their each and every post.

Users will still be able to see photos on the profile pages of the accounts they mute and may get notified when they are tagged in a comment or post; however, the update gives users more control in regard to their feed and Insta’s complex algorithm.

Facebook

Audio Features

Facebook wants to give a more immersive experience to its users by allowing them to add audio messages to their Stories. The new voice feature will be accompanied by a photo or color background!

The update is said to be the company’s attempt at making Stories appeal to a wide audience around the globe.

Archive Your Experience

Never forget a moment of your time on Facebook! The platform has added an Archive option that will allow users to automatically to save their Story clips privately once they expire after 24 hours. You can always refer to your stored clips when you want to see or re-share them on your feed later on.

Users will also be able to save the photos they take from the Facebook camera with this archive update. The photos will directly save to your account rather than your phone’s camera roll.

There’s no more deleting old photos when your storage gets full! Simply save them to Facebook and you’re good to go.

Snapchat

Welcome to SnapKit

For the first time ever, Snapchat is planning to launch a developer platform that will be known as SnapKit. The feature will include several new and improved amenities, including: 

SnapKit will give users the ability to sign up for new apps using their Snap credentials instead of creating new ones. Many are saying this may be a safer alternative to Facebook’s log-in option as the platform collects less personal information from its users.

There is nothing better than a Bitmoji to accompany you on your social media experience! Users may be able to use their personal avatars across many platforms rather than just leaving them to Snapchat and iMessage.

This cross-platform concept goes for the new and improved camera software the app is currently working on, too. The photos users take on their Snapchat accounts or other applications can be shared between one another, making the digital experience more cohesive than ever. 

A release date for this feature has not yet been determined.

How do you plan on using social media’s latest updated features from this month? Let us know in the comments below!