Snapchat launches a chat 2.0 and buys Bitmoji maker
The week in social was almost entirely dominated by Snapchat – what a week for the yellow ghost! First, the social platform unveiled its new chat 2.0 that was previously announced some weeks ago. With this update, Snapchat is now ready to compete with messaging apps including Messenger and WhatsApp, providing users with the option to use 200 new stickers, send video notes, make audio and video calls… well, a full reworking!
Two new features were also rolled out including auto-advance stories – when you’re at the end of friend’s story or when you swipe left, the next story in your list automatically starts playing – and a Privacy Center site.
Snapchat seamlessly combines video, audio, GIFs, stickers in “Chat 2.0” https://t.co/LB7if2Dvy6pic.twitter.com/mj7UOCwheF
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) March 30, 2016
Earlier in the week, Snapchat also bought the Canadian start-up Bitstrips, the Bitmoji creator, for $100 million. This application allows users to create a personalised avatar and use it in comics. We don’t know yet how Snapchat will integrate this on its platform, but the yellow ghost should soon be even more creative. A good response to Facebook which two weeks ago bought MSQRD, the app to take selfies featuring special effects.
Instagram extends its video-length limit to 60 seconds
After offering 60-second video ads to some marketers last month, Facebook-owned platform Instagram will now allow all users to upload minute-long videos, having previously limited video-length to just 15 seconds.
This is an important change for the platform as one minute is a very long period of time for a social video. What’s the reason? As the social platform said on its blog, social users now watch increasingly longer videos. In the last six months on Instagram, the time people spent watching video increased by more than 40 percent.
Now, a new challenge is coming for brands as well as organisations from all areas including the sporting world, with the opportunity to create full ads on Instagram.
Twitter now allows users to add image descriptions
In order to make images more accessible for everyone, especially the visually impaired, users on mobile can now add descriptions to images in tweets. With this update, the social platform is aiming to empower users to ensure content shared is accessible to the widest possible audience.
After activating the feature in settings, each image uploaded will have an ‘Add description’ button. Then, users will be able to write a description of up to 420 characters – yes, 420 characters!
Starting today, anyone can make Tweets with images accessible to the visually impaired: https://t.co/mAnehClSNRpic.twitter.com/bmCuMVWJrR
— Twitter (@twitter) March 29, 2016
Periscope turns 1
The live-streaming app owned by Twitter, Periscope, has recently celebrated its 1st birthday! And what an impressive year it was. Indeed, in 12 months, there were over 200 million broadcasts, and users now watch over 110 years of live content per day.
With around 100 million users and used more and more by the media, Periscope could be the platform to watch in the next few months.