December 19: The latest social media news
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✨With the holidays just around the corner, this is our final Shareable edition for this year.
But don’t worry: we'll be back on January 9th 2025 with more social media news. Until then, the SocialBee team wishes you a joyful holiday season and a “Happy New Year!"🐝
👤 Meta (Ads)
Meta added a new “View" column in Ads Reporting. (source)
Meta is rolling out a cross-channel conversion optimization feature for Sales campaigns. (source)
💠 Meta (AI)
Meta AI Studio is now available in Facebook Messenger. (source)
💙 Facebook
Facebook is testing a new type of story, “Play & Create”. (source)
Facebook now allows creators to post exclusive stories for their subscribers. (source)
Facebook added a “Voting Reminder” notification. (source)
💖 Instagram
Instagram is working on “Avatar Quests” for Instagram DMs. (source)
Instagram is testing a new “auto-labeling” feature for business chats. (source)
Instagram added a new action button for comments, “Share on Threads”. (source)
Instagram added a “screenshot prevention” feature for images or videos sent as “View once”. (source)
Instagram added a new “Memories” sticker for Instagram Stories. (source)
Instagram added 12 new filters for Stories and Reels. (source)
Instagram added several features for New Year’s Eve celebrations. (source)
Instagram DMs
— Three new chat themes, “Chill”, “Mariah Carey” and “New Years”.
Instagram Notes
— Custom animation for “Happy New Year!”.
Instagram Reels & Stories
— A new “Collage”-like feature for Stories.
— A new font, “New Year”.
— A new text effect for fonts, “Countdown”.
— Custom “Add yours” templates.
💚 WhatsApp
WhatsApp is working on a new feature for WhatsApp Channels, “Starred channels”. (source)
WhatsApp will soon allow users to mention group chats in status updates. (source).
WhatsApp is testing a new “app gallery” UI for sending photo and video albums. (source)
WhatsApp is testing two new AI-based features for WhatsApp Business, “AI-powered replies” and a business platform connection called “Connect with AI”. (source)
WhatsApp is testing a new in-app call dialer feature for WhatsApp Calls. (source).
🧵 Threads
Threads is working on a “markup” feature for quoted posts. (source)
Threads is testing a new feature for posts, “Schedule posts”. (source)
Threads is testing a new feature for current and new users, ”Starter Packs”. (source)
Threads now allows Android users to join the beta testing program straight from the “Settings” section. (source)
Threads is rolling out a new way to reshare images and videos through a new “Use media” button. (source)
👥 Tumblr
Tumblr launched a new interest-focused feature for its users, Communities. (source)
🦜 X (Twitter)
X is working on ”Post awards”. (source).
X is working on a new type of audience for posts, “Premium exclusive”. (source)
X will rename its in-app payment feature X Payments to “X Money”. (source)
X added audio queries for Grok AI. (source)
X added a new AI-based feature for posts, “Explain this post”. (source)
🔗 LinkedIn
LinkedIn is now showing public video views. (source)
🎥 YouTube
YouTube is testing “voice comments”. (source).
YouTube added custom playback speed controls for its web player. (source)
YouTube added a new “parent code” feature for kids on the main YouTube app. (source)
YouTube launched a new monetization feature for live videos, “Super Chat Goals”. (source).
🔎 Google
Google AI Overviews are now powered by Google’s latest LLM (Large Language Model), Gemini 2.0. (source)
Google announced a “company-branded multimodal search agent” feature called Google Agentspace. (source)
🥽 Google (xR)
Google launched a new operating system for mixed reality headsets and smart glasses, Android XR. (source)
💛 Snapchat
Snapchat added a new “Bookmarks & Browser History” section. (source)
💜 Twitch
Twitch added five new features for Twitch Clips. (source)
– A new mobile clip creation flow.
– Top clips panel in Stream Summary.
– Clip Leaderboard & Nudges experiment.
– Clip Manager improvements.
– New Clip discoverability settings.
🦋Bluesky
Bluesky is working on link click metrics. (source).
🗓️ Upcoming social media holidays
21 December – National Crossword Puzzle Day.
22 December – First Day of Winter.
23 December – Festivus.
24 December – Christmas Eve.
25 December – Christmas Day.
31 December – New Year’s Eve.
1 January – New Year’s Day.
2 January – Science Fiction Day.
4 January – World Braille Day.
5 January – National Bird Day.
8 January – World Typing Day.
8 January – Clean Off Your Desk Day.
💡 7 content ideas
Share an inspirational quote from a surprising source [e.g, cartoons, pop song, kids book, etc.].
Give your followers a last chance to benefit from your Christmas promotion.
Ask your followers to share their favorite way to stay organized.
Post about your team members' Christmas wishes.
Talk about a best practice in your line of work.
Share a post about how to say "Happy Holidays" in multiple languages.
Conduct light-hearted polls related to your industry or office life.
Read our previous social media editions: December 5 and December 12.
Showing special appreciation to all the sources listed in this newsletter. They all have great newsletters and social media feeds worth subscribing to.
https://www.meta.com/
https://techcrunch.com/
https://theverge.com/
https://www.seroundtable.com/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniemaihodge/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bramvanderhallen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaseccel
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kritig/
https://support.google.com/
https://www.threads.net/@candinaswanders/
https://www.threads.net/@ihammod_oh/
https://www.threads.net/@jaskaransainiz/
https://www.threads.net/@jenns_trends/
https://www.threads.net/@lindseygamble/
https://www.threads.net/@mattnavarra/
https://www.threads.net/@nickysweet857/
https://www.threads.net/@stormtracker28/
https://www.threads.net/@theahmedghanem/
https://www.threads.net/@wabetainfo/
https://www.threads.net/@wearesocial/
https://www.youtube.com/@creatorinsider
https://x.com/aaronp613/
https://x.com/nima_owji/
https://x.com/p4mui/
https://www.x.com/@twitchsupport/
https://www.x.com/@WaBetaInfo/