Giraffe has managed to find some time between sunbathing and sipping iced tea in the glorious sunshine to bring you that much-needed dose of social media news. Come rain or shine we scour industry news so you don’t have to. So grab your deckchair, relax and find out what’s been happening in the social media space during June.
LinkedIn Tests New ‘Dark Mode’ for its Desktop App
A little late to the party, but LinkedIn is currently testing out a new ‘Dark Mode’ display for desktop clients. Offering a darker user experience that we have been accustomed to on other platforms. This has been discovered by Jane Manchun Wong a reverse engineering expert who shared a screenshot of the proposed mode on Twitter. It looks as you would expect, very sleek and modern and should please those who have been clamouring for the feature for a while. Whether it’s to save their vision or just a fresh new design aesthetic, there is a huge community of passionate people that are very enthusiastic with ‘Dark Mode’ options across all digital platforms.
Most social apps already have the option for a dark mode baked in, LinkedIn has been dragging it’d feet since 2019 when CNET first reported on LinkedIn joining the dark mode revolution. It seems that finally, LinkedIn is gearing up for a long-overdue launch of the feature based on this new screenshot, which will be a great addition to the platform moving forward.
YouTube Adds New Tools to Detect Copyright Violations During the Upload Process
In other social media news, YouTube is rolling out new options for users to have more power over copyright violations in uploads. A new element has been added to the copyright claim process which enables creators to tick a new box when reporting a copyright violation, preventing copies of these videos from appearing on YouTube going forward.
When this box is checked and a copyright claim is successful, YouTube will work to stop new uploads of the same video from users. It does this using its Copyright ID detection and video matching tech. The same process will also enable YouTube to alert content creators if a similar video is uploaded, as long as the checkbox is ticked. Potential violations can then be viewed in YouTube Studio under the ‘Copyright Match’ tab.
YouTube notes that creators must own exclusive worldwide rights to the content they claim in the process, however, if successful this new process is a powerful tool to stop people uploading different versions of, or re-uploading creators original content and limiting misuse. YouTube will also be adding a new listing of how many videos have been blocked from being uploaded to provide insight into how effective a creators claim has been.
Youtube says this update will be rolling out June 2021 onwards and as is the norm these days will be a staged process, with full rollout being achieved in a few months. If you want to read more about the new copyright and removal process head here for a full breakdown.
Facebook announce eCommerce Push, Shops on WhatsApp
Facebook is pushing its play for more eCommerce focus. The company has just announced a range of new shopping tools including shops on WhatsApp, and Shop listings in Facebook Marketplace. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcements via live stream.
As per Zuckerberg:
“We’re bringing Shops to WhatsApp which will make it easier for people to find the products or brands that they want to engage with.”
Zuckerberg noted that Facebook and Instagram Shops now sees over 300 million visitors per month, with over 1.2 million monthly active Shops on its platforms. This is a staggering amount considering Facebook only launched its Shops offering a year ago.
The addition of Shops to WhatsApp could be a significant if not polarising one. Whilst WhatsApp is the most used messaging service in the world. The monetisation of users has been difficult as people simply don’t want ads in their private message threads or WhatsApp status, and we all know how spectacularly its own version of Stories flopped.
Facebook now believe that adding Shops to WhatsApp will enable businesses to present their entire Shop within the messaging app, giving users another way to find relevant products and connect with the business for more info.
This update will primarily hinge on how it’s received by WhatsApp users, on one hand, it could be a massive boon to eCommerce businesses, on the other, it could cause a mass exodus of WhatsApp users that are already exposed to ad’s daily and may view this as a step too far. For now, we will have to wait and watch to see how things develop.
Well, there you go that’s it for this month, Giraffe will be back next month with more social media news updates. For now, it’s time to pop on the SPF and get back to working on that summer tan! Chance would be a fine thing, we all know social media never sleeps!
