New social media features and updates to know this week

Even with last week’s Fourth of July holiday in the United States, there’s no shortage of social media news this week, including some new contenders to the playing field.

Proving that time is a flat circle, a new app that TechCrunch describes as “a mashup of Twitter and Myspace” is topping the App Store downloads charts. Especially popular with Gen Z, the app allows tons of customization to profile pages harking back to the early days of social media, allowing users to choose their backgrounds and share their relationship status or what they’re watching at any given moment. The platform bills itself in particular as a means making new friends in an era when other platforms typically result in more superficial connections and relationships.

Will this social network be a flash in the pan or something you need to take seriously? We’ll find out together.

Spotify, not typically thought of as a social network, is also dipping its toe in these waters by adding comments to podcast pages. Unlike most other platforms, all comments will have to be approved by the podcast creators before they appear publicly, which may keep them a more cordial, positive place. But just as YouTube is beefing up social elements, Spotify wants to get more people talking about podcasts on page rather than outsourcing the conversation elsewhere.

Now, let’s check out what the more usual players on this list have been up to.

Meta

Meta is tweaking the way it labels content that has been enhanced by an AI tool. Previously, the label across Meta products read, “Made with AI.” However, some creators balked when content that was only retouched with AI was considered to be entirely made with AI. Now, the label will read “AI info,” with the option to tap or click for a fuller explanation of the AI use.

Facebook

Following in Instagram’s footsteps, Facebook is testing a new “Clear” mode for viewing Reels on the app that would allow users to hide all control buttons and focus solely on the content. It’s another clear signal that Reels are an important part of your Facebook strategy, as well as Instagram.

TikTok

The clock app is ramping up privacy features, especially for teens. Advertisers can no longer use any personalized targeting for teenagers, save location, device and language. Users will also be able to request more of certain kinds of ads, stop advertisers from using off-platform data to serve them ads on TikTok, and clear all past data.

Advertisers will now also be required to disclose AI use.

Instagram

Speaking of Instagram, app head Adam Mosseri posted a video explaining that one of the most important ranking signals is “sends per reach,” or how many people shared a piece of content with a friend via DM. “We want to be a place where you not only passively consume content, but where you discover things you want to tell your friends about,” Mosseri said.

It’s unclear if this advice applies only to Instagram, or to Threads, which Mosseri also heads, or sister app Facebook. But public shares are already a powerful ranking factor, so it makes sense that this person-to-person version would be considered too. Of course, it will be frustrating for social media managers, since that signal will be entirely hidden from public view.

YouTube

It can be frustrating to get a copyright claim against music in your video. Now, YouTube is offering an AI-driven algorithm to help resolve copyright strikes quickly. “Erase Song” will cut out the music while keeping dialogue and other audio. Meanwhile, “Mute All Sound” will, well, mute everything between specified timestamps.

Once resolved, videos can once again be remonetized.

Snapchat

Snapchat+, the ghost app’s premium service, boasts 9 million subscribers. They’re now trotting out a few new features to hopefully boost that number even more.

These include:

• Customizing a visual of a house on your Snap Map for your friends to see.
• Create a Bitmoji of your pet to appear in chats.
• Have Snaps disappear in as little as 0.1 second.

X

Grok AI may become more tightly interwoven with the X app. Reports indicate that X is testing the ability to open the AI tool in a sidebar so you can post and consult a robot at the same time as you’re scrolling your feed.

It also appears that X is testing the ability to downvote content, in a style that, on first glance, appears similar to Reddit. However, an engineer posted (and Elon Musk agreed with a “true”) that to avoid a “hivemind,” they are considering modeling the visibility of the downvote-style button after Community Notes, such that feedback would be kept private and only anonymously posted after 48 hours to avoid “poisoning the rating process” and brigading behavior.

Another consideration for the feature is to ensure that posts are only downranked by users “who typically disagree.”

Mastodon

Finally, text-based app Mastodon is courting journalists by including a “byline” feature below headlines that include a link to the journalist’s Mastodon profile. This is a notable move as other sites, including X and Meta apps, have begun to downplay the importance of journalists on their sites.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.