New social media features and updates to know this week

Threads is the big mover and shaker this week with the launch of several new features.

Perhaps the biggest in that bunch is the addition of ads. But there are others, including one that that should make life easier for social media managers.

Threads isn’t Meta’s only newsmaker this week as Instagram a new transparency tool for communications between business accounts and would-be customers And not be outdone, X continues its efforts to get into the video game and the OG of video, YouTube, is offering new tools for paid members.

Let’s get into it.

Threads

Meta is currently testing ads on its microblogging site with just a handful of advertisers. Participating businesses can schedule these through their existing Ads Manager.

During testing, image ads will appear between pieces of content in the home feed for a small percentage of people.

The test includes an inventory filter for ads, which allows advertisers to at least partially control the type of organic content their ads appear next to. The filter options are “expanded,” “moderate” and “limited” and the choice affects whether an ad appears next to things like sexually suggestive content or hot-button social issues.

Users can also control the types of ads they see on Threads. For example, if a person sees an ad they don’t like, they can skip the ad or tap the menu to report it.

Meta stressed that it won’t place ads next to any content that violates its community standards.

Outside of ads, Threads now allows natively schedule Threads posts through the app – something social media manager should love. Just tap the three-dot menu on the composer, then “Schedule.”

On the user side of things, Threads now offers a “Markup” tool that makes it easier to reshare posts in a more personalized manner.

When you tap the “Repost” button, you’ll now see “Markup” between the long-established “Repost” and “Quote” options. A person doing a markup can choose to use a yellow highlighter or a red pen to scribble over text or images. There’s also an “Undo” option to erase your work.

Once complete, hit “Next” to go to share your thoughts and complete your thread.

This is a quick, easy way to highlight a specific piece of text, do a little red line editing or even doodle a bit.

Instagram

Instagram has added a “business chat” label to distinguish business conversations from personal DMs. Meta introduced something similar on Messenger in August.

The “Business Chat” label appears at the top title bar, according to Social Media Today, along with a link explaining that data is used more liberally from these business chats than with personal DMs. The data may be used to serve personalized ads or otherwise improve the service.

This update, which IG calls a transparency effort, doesn’t change the platform’s privacy policy or terms.

Instagram noted that data from these business conversations may be shared with Meta and the business itself.

X

X has added a dedicated video tab to the bottom of the screen for American users. The play button icon replaces the “Communities” tab.

This gives users the ability to quickly access full-screen video feed. The player automatically moves on to the next video in the X-curated queue when the one you’re watching ends, giving a similar experience as other short-form content apps.

The platform reported 8.3 billion daily video views in 2024, a 40% increase year-over-year.

YouTube

The evolving video streamer has introduced several new experiments and featuresthat Premium users can opt into.

The list includes:

• High-quality audio: Music videos stream at 256kbps, which aims to offer clearer and deeper sound.
• Picture-in-picture for YouTube Shorts on iOS: This lets a person use other apps or send messages while watching Shorts.
• “Jump ahead” on web: This function, previously available on mobile, lets you skip to the best parts of a video while browsing on web browsers.
• Faster playback speeds on mobile: Watch videos up to four times faster on mobile.

YouTube has also added “Smart downloads for YouTube Shorts” on iOS. This option not only recommends Shorts but it automatically downloads them for offline viewing.

If you’re interested in learning about the latest digital trends, plan to attend Ragan’s Social Media Conference at Walt Disney World from March 19-21. You can find more details on the event website.

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. Follow him on LinkedIn.