A Quick Roundup of January News & Social Media Updates
Social Media and technology updates abounded in Jan 2019. So what changed? Lets take a quick scan of some of the most notable updates in the tech sector.
In addition to the “10 Year Challenge,” Facebook was buzzing about changes to group member counting. Many group managers were perplexed and upset by the sudden changes to their member numbers. Previously persons who were invited to join a group were counted as members even if they had never accepted the invitation or interacted with the page. Facebook moved these persons from the member category to a new category called “invited” and therefore many groups saw their membership numbers take a sudden decrease. Contrary to popular concern, all inactive members were not deleted. Persons who had visited the page, or read page content in the past but do not frequently interact with the page will remain group members. The change only applies to persons who never accepted a member invite an never interacted with a group page at all.
Facebook is also allegedly planning to integrate Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Media reports detail that the systems will remain standalone apps, but the back end infrastructure will be stitched together. The exact details and ramifications remain to be seen.
Spotify
Spotify has two new features rolling out soon. First, the company testing out a new feature called “don’t play this artist,” an option designed to do exactly what it says, let you block an artist from your playlist. A second innovation, Car View, is designed with bigger buttons and larger images designed for easier viewing. Currently it is only available on Android devises.
Twitter is in the process of rolling out a host of new features. IOS users were introduced to the chronological timeline in December, and Android users gained the feature in January. Improvements are also being made to the apps dark mode, changes which will result in less battery drain. New emoji buttons and keyboard shortcuts are expected soon, as well as an improved search function and trending section.
Instagram rolled out a few updates in late December, early January. One tool sure to be of use to the busy social media manager is an ability to schedule video postings via third party tools such as Hootsuite. If your organization has multiple linked accounts the news that you can now share a post across linked accounts will likely be exciting. Updated “question sticker” features also create new opportunities to engage with your social media audience. A “quiz sticker “ is allegedly in the works as well, a feature that will likely spark interest for arts educators.