Facebook's 'metaverse' and why K-pop stars are bypassing Facebook and Twitter
Social media headlines of the week - July 26-August 1, 2021
Facebook is building a 'metaverse'
Facebook is putting together a team with specialists from its different units to build an immersive digital world known as the "metaverse." The term was coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson and a shared online world in which multiple users can hang out, spend money, consume media and potentially even work. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he sees the metaverse as "the successor to the mobile internet."
Vishal Shah from the Instagram team will head a new Metaverse Product Group.
Opinion: 'Substack only an evolution, not a revolution'
"Substack will take its place as just another platform for self-publishing — better than some, but evolutionary, not revolutionary. And the hard work of finding ways to pay for journalism in the digital age will continue," says Dan Kennedy.
K-pop stars bypass traditional social media to create platforms for fans
Companies behind some of the biggest K-pop stars are creating new social apps for their artists, entirely bypassing third-party platforms like Twitter or Facebook. These platforms allow new ways of monetising the stars' popularity and the platforms and include mildly controversial AI-generated voice calls with idols.
Relaxed guidelines make Olympians social media stars
Olympic athletes are giving a never before seen peep into their day-to-day lives outside of the arena, thanks to the International Olympic Committee relaxing its otherwise strict social media guidelines on what the Olympians can post while participating in the Games. Many posts by Olympians on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter have gone viral including an Irish gymnast fact checking the the "anti-sex" beds at the Olympics.
While athletes and officials are still forbidden from posting unapproved sponsored content, participants are allowed to share noncommercial video content on their personal pages.
Instagram now supports 60-seconds videos on Reels
Instagram now allows minute-long videos on its Reels feature, up from the previous limit of 30-seconds. While competitor TikTok recently started allowing up to 3 minutes long videos. YouTube Shorts and Snapchat’s Spotlight also support minute-long videos. This Instagram update also added the functionality of captions sticker on Reels, which transcribes audio to text. The feature is currently available in English and Instagram says they will expand to other languages soon.
Clubhouse opens to all, but users aren’t rushing in
Audio-only social media platform Clubhouse recently ditched its invite-only status allowing anyone installing the app to access the service. The long-awaited removal of the need for an invite from an existing user was believed to add millions of new users. But the masses don't appear to be rushing in. The app had 484,000 new installs globally between July 21 and 25, according to analytics group SensorTower. Much of Clubhouse's new users are coming from India.
Instagram doubles Insights data to 60 days
Instagram announced that it is doubling the data tracking period within Instagram Insights from 30 days past to 60 days and also added a new calendar tool within Insights. The analytics time frame is likely to be expanded to 90 days soon.
Twitter Spaces update makes sharing and discovery easier
A new update to Twitter Spaces makes it easier to share and discover the audio feature. User will now have the ability to compose a new tweet directly from a Space, which will link to the audio chat and include any accompanying hashtags.
Bonus: Top free photo and video apps
A handy list of the top free photo and video apps available online with descriptions and reviews.