The festive season is in full swing! We hope everyone has their sherry and mince pies at hand for Santa! Whilst we wait for the main man himself, how about some social media news to pass the time, sound good? Okay, let’s get started then!
TikTok Testing Horizontal Full-Width Videos
TikTok is yet again changing things up on its competitors, who seemingly seem hellbent on copying its features, this time TikTok is experimenting with a horizontal full-screen display option, providing a whole new way to view TikTok clips.
As you can see through the link, some users are reporting seeing a new ‘Full Screen’ button displayed on some clips, prompting users to turn their device to the side to see the full-width display.
This brings with it a whole new set of creative options to consider when creating videos, opening up new and interesting ways to incorporate this into TikTok content strategies to help boost engagement and interest.
This is the latest in a slew of updates throughout 2022, that TikTok has been testing in a bid to push back against competitors replicating its key elements, including:
- Still image carousel posts, similar to Instagram’s main feed post tools
- Longer video uploads, bringing it more in line with YouTube’s posting options
- ‘TikTok Now’, which replicates the BeReal style approach to posting
TikTok has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is testing the new horizontal display format globally with selected users, so check your app as you could be one of the lucky few to have the option enabled in the app
YouTube Tests Emoji Reactions In Live Streams
In further social media news, YouTube seems to be testing emoji reactions within live streams.
YouTube’s adding another response option within live streams, with a new test of emoji reactions during a broadcast.
YouTube explains:
“We’re starting to test a new way to react to what’s happening on live streams. If you’re in this experiment, you’ll see options to react on a stream with [one of five emoji reactions]. Your reactions are anonymous and other viewers in the chat won’t be able to see who used what reactions.”
This will add yet another way to interact and show support during live streams along with Super Chat donations and stickers. This will allow for a far more interactive, real-time experience for viewers and thus far includes a heart, the ‘laughing until you cry’ face, the ‘surprised’ face along with many others.
YouTube recently also added Emotes to chat streams, meaning that along with emoji reactions, users have some simple options to engage without the need to leave a full comment, coupled with the fact that live-stream comment sections seem to be very fast-paced, making it difficult at times to reply with a comment whilst keeping on top of the thread. So these two options will be a welcome addition for many.
YouTube has stated that it’s testing the new live reactions feature with a limited number of channels, to begin with.
Twitter Shares Mock-Ups Of Longer Tweets
Social media news has been buzzing with news on Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter 2.0”, another element that has just surfaced is the capacity to allow users to share longer posts, in either video or text format, all from within the app.
Musk has now gone on record to express his interest in baking in YouTube like features, one of which is enabling users to post longer videos, to keep viewers from switching to another app to consume video content. Musk also expressed on Twitter to users that longer text tweets, potentially up to 4,000 characters – are coming soon.
Recently, Twitter designer Andrea Conway shared some mock-ups of how longer tweets may look in-stream, and how the process could work, if/when implemented.
As you can see in this example, longer tweets would likely appear in-stream at the regular tweet length, with a ‘Show more’ indicator at the end of the first 280 characters. Users could then expand the tweet to read more, with potentially the full 4,000 characters then displayed in a longer tweet panel.
This would enable Twitter to provide room to share longer form copy, without interrupting tweet streams too significantly. However, those users who expand a longer tweet would still need to scroll to the bottom of an expanded tweet to continue to read the thread. This could still cause a lot of frustration, as users may not know what is hidden behind the ‘Show more’ marker until it is fully expanded, only to be presented with 4k words. In a single Tweet? This may be a step too far.
At the time of writing, there is no word on a live test of longer tweets by Twitter, however, we expect it to make an appearance in the coming weeks, watch this space!
Well, that’s it for this month, we will see you in 2023 for more news updates. As always if you want more tips, insights and expert social media marketing ideas, then head to our blog section.
Lastly, our entire team here at Giraffe would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
