4 new social media features you need to know this week

Screenshot from TikTok blog

TikTok, YouTube and Twitter announced new features last week that promise to improve photo and video editing, content tagging, and audio spaces.

Here is a roundup of this week’s news.

TikTok adds a new photo mode for still images

TikTok made the latest move in its war with Instagram by adding a way that users can share still images on its app.

The new feature looks exactly like Instagram’s carousels.

“Photo Mode allows you to share carousel posts of still images that automatically display one after another,” TikTok said in a statement on its site. “You can add music to soundtrack the images, which viewers can swipe through at their own pace.”

TikTok also announced that creators now have 2,200 characters to accompany each clip which will allow more description on posts and give more power for users to search for posts on the app and search engines.

TikTok announces new video editing tools

TikTok also recently announced new video editing tools designed to help communicators easily adjust clips, sounds, images and text on the app.

The site announced in the blog post that these changes will allow users to:

• Edit clips: Stack, trim, and split video clips.
• Edit sounds: Cut, trim, and set the duration for sounds.
• Edit and position text: More easily edit, position, and set the duration for text.
• Add overlays: Add photo and video overlays for picture-in-picture (or video-in-video) stacking.
• Adjust video speed: Speed or slow the pace of video clips.
• Frame content: Rotate or zoom in and out of the frame of individual clips.

YouTube introduces account handles

YouTube introduced account handles in addition to existing channel names.

These will be identified with @ before the channel name.

Handles will be gradually rolled out and accounts that have already been verified with Google will remain verified unless they change their channel name.

“Handles will appear on channel pages and Shorts, so they’ll be instantly and consistently recognizable,” YouTube said in a blog post announcing the move. “It’ll soon be simpler and faster to mention each other in comments, community posts, video descriptions and more. For example, creators can be shouted out in a mention in comments or tagged in the title of a recent collab, helping them increase visibility and reach with new audiences.”

Twitter eyes dedicated audio spaces in its Communities

Twitter is looking at allowing community admins to create dedicated audio spaces in their groups.

Communities 🤝 Spaces

starting today we’re rolling out the Community Spaces test where some admins + mods will be able to host Spaces in their Communities pic.twitter.com/gdlxR9IZiH

— Communities (@HiCommunities) October 12, 2022

“With this experiment, a group of admins and moderators in the US will receive access to create live Spaces within their Twitter Communities,” Twitter said. “Audio in Communities adds an extra layer of personality and connectivity beyond 280 characters; by initiating live audio conversations specific to a Community and topic, Community admins will be able to better lead their Communities, engage their members, and participate in quality conversations with others who share the same interests.”

According to socialmediatoday.com, the new Twitter feature is similar to Reddit’s Reddit Talks audio chat option and Facebook’s Community Audio Channels.

Chris Pugh is a staff writer for PR Daily. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Send story ideas to ChrisP@Ragan.com.