In the news this week – Twitter adds 69 new emojis, Facebook allows fundraising for personal causes and Instagram begins to understand links…
Twitter adds 69 new emojis, becoming the first social network to support Emoji 5.0
Twitter has become the first social networking site to support the newest round of emojis, finalised in March. Included are separate flags for England, Scotland and Wales, chopsticks, steak, a porcupine and a zebra.
The newest round of emojis, known as Emoji 5.0, was released only last week. Twitter’s custom set is known as Twemoji and includes all 69 images of the latest update (239 with skin tone variations and duplicates.) Support for Emoji 5.0 currently isn’t available on iOS or Android devices – so the new lineup of emojis are only available on Twitter’s desktop site for the time being.
Facebook expands Fundraisers to allows user to raise money for personal causes
Facebook has expanded its fundraising feature to allow users to more easily raise cash for a variety of causes, including personal causes. With Fundraisers, Facebook look to take on popular crowdfunding services such as Just Giving and Go Fund Me. Crowdfunding campaigns already rely on social media marketing to be successful, and with Facebook appearing to take a smaller percentage than other options, it could be something of a no-brainer feature.
Fundraisers began testing in March and have recently been developed to allow users to fund raise for a number of other personal causes. These include educational supplies, medical procedures, personal emergencies, and community projects. In an article on its Newsroom, Facebook said this:
“People can create a fundraiser to quickly raise money on Facebook and easily reach their friends in a few taps, without leaving Facebook, and can share fundraisers to help build momentum. People can learn about the person who created the fundraiser and the person benefiting from the fundraiser, as well as see which friends have donated.”
Twitter Apple TV app supports live, 360 degree video and Periscope’s global map
Twitter has updated its Apple TV app with some new, significant features. It has now become the first Apple TV app to support live 360 degree video, which makes use of the Siri remote to move the video and view from different angles, offering a more immersive viewing experience. Twitter is making significant inroads into the live streaming market, including announcing earlier this month a series of live shows from Viacom, Live Nation, BuzzFeed and WNBA amongst others.
Alongside premium live content, viewers on the Twitter app for Apple TBV will also have the option to explore via the added Periscope map. This will allow them to find user-generated live content, both standard and 360, from across the globe.
Instagram expands direct messaging with support for links and raw photo sharing
At last count, Instagram direct messaging was seeing around 375 million monthly active users, and that number is undoubtedly growing. In response, the social network has now added a couple of new features intended to make it a more useful messaging option. Support has been added for external web links, and now inclues inline previews for URLs.
Alongside supporting links, Instagram users are also now able to send original, unedited photo and video content with other users. The ability to send photos in their original aspect ratios will reduce the amount of time users will have to spend on external messaging platforms. These updates are currently rolling out to iOS users and will be coming to Android soon.
Twitter launches DM cards for brands, a new way to promote their chatbots
Twitter have launched a new way for brands to promote and share the bots and customer experiences they have created. Direct Message Cards can be customised to help drive discovery of these experiences via Promoted Tweets or organic posting. DM cards can be embedded with custom image of video creatives and up to four call-to-action buttons.
One of the launch partners for this new feature is Patrón Tequila. They are using DM cards to help drive discovery of its messaging bot. So-called ‘Bot-Tender’ creates personalised cocktail recommendations based on a users responses to questions about occasions and flavours, amongst other things.
Instagram announces location-based stories for Explore and adds an ‘archive’ option
Finally, Instagram have announced the roll out of Location Stories for its Explore page – after a similar feature was (rather unsurprisingly) released by Snapchat less than two months ago. By enabling users to search for Stories from strangers whose privacy settings are set to public based on their location, Instagram offers users another level of discover-ability for their Stories content.
Alongside location-based stories, Instagram have added an ‘Archive’ option in the hope to deter permanent deletion of out-dated or under-performing posts.
