Platform 5: This week’s most important social media changes (edition 90)
Your weekly dose of social media news
Here are five things that changed in the last seven days…or so:
Two new Facebook Live features, Google’s Lens, Pinterest’s full dish recognition, Instagram’s face filters and Rewind, and Twitter’s new emojis.
Facebook announced two new Facebook Live features
Facebook is testing a new feature that allows you to chat privately during Facebook Live streams. Not only will you be able to initiate a private conversation with those already watching the stream, you’ll also be able to chat with people who aren’t…thereby bringing them into the stream. The aim of all of this is, of course, to get more of us watching and interacting with live videos and to make the act of doing so a more enjoyable one for all!
The second feature announced this week allows you to invite a guest to your broadcast. All you have to do is invite a guest from your list of viewers or tap on a comment from the viewer you want to add. The viewer will then have the option to join you or decline your invitation.
Read more about these new features here.
Google Lens to make your phone smarter
We couldn’t write this week’s update without mentioning Google I/O 2017 and what we think is one of the coolest announcements out of the annual conference: Google Lens. Google CEO, Sundar Pichai showed off the new visual search technology that allows your phone to recognise the objects in front of it and provide you with information and/or prompt you to take action.
Pointing your phone at a shop front, for example, will bring up its Google listing. Pichai even showed a video of a user holding a phone up to a WiFi router. Lens recognised the network name and WAP password and connected the phone to the network!
Read more about Google Lens here.
Pinterest adds full-dish recognition to Lens
Speaking of developments in visual search…Pinterest has added full-dish recognition to its Lens feature. What does this mean? Well, quite simply, Pinterest’s Lens feature can now recognise dishes and recommend recipes to make it. So the next time you take a bite out of something delicious and want to know how to make it, all you’ll have to do is point Pinterest’s Lens at it for a few recipe ideas.
Read more about Pinterest’s full dish recognition here.
Face filters and Rewind on Instagram
Instagram’s latest feature allows you to add filters to faces. Sound familiar? Yup, think Snapchat…only on Instagram. Why take a plain old selfie when you can add a crown or have butterflies fluttering about your head! Instagram also announced Rewind which…well…allows you to play a recorded videos in reverse.
Read more about Instagram’s face filters and Rewind here.
New emojis for Twitter
Who doesn’t like an emoji?! Twitter users now have access to a whole new set of emojis including ‘star struck’, ‘exploding head’, ‘bearded person’, ‘woman zombie’ and ‘man in lotus position’ (it’s about time!). The emojis are only available via desktop, mobile web and TweetDeck.
Read more about Twitter’s new emojis here.
Follow us on Twitter for news of these social media and content marketing changes as they happen.